Quarantine
by Guardian of the crest
Summary: Disease is the great Leveler. It sees not wealth nor poverty, not power nor weakness. So what happens when one of the League suddenly falls ill, and even the world's finest are left powerless to help?
1. Prolouge

Gotc: Yay for inspiration! I've been watching the episodes of Justice League and for whatever reason ended up fixating on a couple of the episodes that could have made an excellent tie in with a reemergence of an old villain. Sigh…… Too bad there's not some way we could write a new plot for ourselves to fix the places in the plot we think could be made better……wait…. ;)

Anyway, allow me to go through the formalities so my rump doesn't end up getting sued by DC or somebody. I don't own JL any of the characters, or any of its affiliates, for I am only a lowly fan. But enough of this, I wish you all an enjoyable read!

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 0: Prologue 

"We need a target."

"We have on, my dear."

"I mean specifically. I can't guarantee that this will even slow one of the aliens down."

"Then that leave us with four options."

"Three. The Gods protect Diana."

"Pity. She would have made an excellent sounding board."

"She'll get her turn, but I want to break her first."

"Sounds like you already have someone in mind?"

"Yes. I want to see the princess watch her knight fall."

Gotc: It's short, I know. But motive's important too, right? Yes of course it is. Well, there's still another chapter to make p for the lack of material here, so head on over and keep reading!!!


	2. Contact

Gotc: Yeah, so this story was sorta born out of the…..well lack is the wrong word, but the gap in updates on existing BMWW fics out there. Of course, I do have what could be classified as a borderline obsession with the couple on which I blame DC and the writers for Justice League. Anyhoo, since this is a new chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and proceed with all the usual legal junk.

Disclaimer: I do not own JL or any of its characters or affiliates, because if I did, Batman and Wonder Woman so would have gotten together already.

So with that out of the way, let's get you good people reading something a little more substantial than dialogue! And as an added note, this story takes place a few months after the episode "Doomsday Sanction".

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 1: Contact

What sounded like another small explosion, rocked the building from top to bottom, threatening to jar the hair trigger charge balanced in the Batman's hands. If he'd had a free hand not busy with the explosive less than a foot away from his face, he would have had a few creative expletives for the red and blue clad meta several floors above. However, since he didn't, the grumblings echoed uselessly in the dim light of the basement.

Mercury trigger rigged to three pounds of C4 explosives, magnetic couplings, multiple bombs on two floors, all wired to detonate like some twisted game of Operation and made no easier by the constant rolls and pitches the building was making from the fighting above. Yes, Kent might have been keeping Luthor's hired meta-squad busy, but that didn't mean he could ever use an ounce of finesse while doing it. Then again the boy Scout's answer to anything was if at first you don't succeed, find a bigger bus.

"Nhgn…How…'s it coming….down there?" Superman's strained voice came through, followed shortly by the sound of another crash.

"This is as fast as it gets, Superman," Batman shot back, finally getting a hand around the detonator and pulled the tangle of disconnected wires free , "They've got charges rigged every 50 feet, each one set to detonate the next if something tampers with it."

"Fine…. Do you need some help? I think Flash is just about-"

"No. You need to make sure none of them get down here. I can't disarm a bomb and fight at the same time."

"So the Dark Knight _can't _be everywhere at once?"

A small grin came to Batman's face as he heard what sounded like something very big and very heavy connect with the Kryptonian. He didn't believe in karma, but it certainly did come in handy every now and again. A hand went to his cowl and quickly scanned the area he was in for any missed devices. Small blips lit up his field of vision from the useless dismantled bombs, but found nothing that the Dark Knight had left intact.

One of the building's maintenance men had found the bombs on the upper floors and made the call to 911. Normally it would have been something the bomb squad could have taken care of, but when the group of metas responsible for planting them made an appearance, 911 placed a call to the Justice League. It wasn't anything they hadn't handled before; Grundy, Star Sapphire, Bizzaro and Cheetah at the entrance, trying to keep anyone from reaching the explosives. Of course, "trying" was the operative word. Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman were more than a match for the villains, which had given Batman the opportunity to slip past their defenses.

What worried him, was the apparent lack of any sort of a timing device, radio receiver, or any other sort of a remote way to detonate the charges. That meant that whoever had made them had no real intention of setting them off in the first place.

The charges on the lower level weren't hidden nearly as well as the ones above him had been. Batman moved through a few more of the bombs, leaving a trail of wires and broken plastic in his wake, before something started to change in the construction. They weren't the meticulously crafted devices he'd started disarming; these just looked like a brick of C4 tied together inside of their plastic casings. Wires weren't even connected to each other anymore.

"Superman," He called into the com link, after the fourth dummy, "The bombs are decoys. Whatever that group's doing here, it's not to set these things off."

"What?! Then why rig this whole place with C4?"

"This is Luthor we're talking about," Batman reasoned, a prickle running down the back of his neck, "For all we know this could have just been a trap to lure you out into the open."

A mocking laugh echoed in the shadows next to him, the dim light reflecting a predator's smile.

"Close, but I'm afraid you're still a bit off."

A metallic flash barely missed tasting the flesh of his neck by a breath. His attacker wasted no time coming at him again, and again, leaving him fighting to regain the upper hand and put some distance between himself and the knife lunging for his throat. And there were the blocks of C4 still scattered around the floor around them to worry about. Disarming them was one thing, his focus had been to put them out of play first before he concerned himself with clean up, but now fighting amongst them was like a ballet dance through a mine field. The close quarters provided him some advantage however, even with the sensors in his cowl, had the assailant been more inclined to a distance weapon, he would have never had been able to make out the lithe body that was far too graceful to have belonged to a man.

He finally managed to avoid a scalping strike, leaving his assassin's knife wedged firmly in the drywall over his head. He wasted no time in aiming a stiff kick to her midriff that knocked her a couple yards back, giving him a moment to breathe and reassess his situation.

Whoever she was, she had been extremely well trained. Her attacks with the blade hadn't been the blind thrusting and slashing he came across on a regular basis from back-alley thugs and drug dealers. She was dressed from head to toe in a skin tight body suit that even went so far as to cover her entire face in an impenetrable veil. Aside from an approximate height and weight, she had left no other distinguishing features uncovered, and the suit allowed her to move effortlessly through the shadows the dim lighting so adequately provided.

"Hmm. I see you haven't lost your touch." She said, placing a hand on her hip.

"Who are you?" Batman glared at her through the darkness.

"Now, now, I thought that was up to the Great Detective to figure out." She scolded him, "Just like why someone would want to blow everyone on this building to the next world."

"You're the one who planted the bombs," Batman accused, not really leaving room for a denial. His attacker merely shrugged, not at all concerned. "But your target's not the workers or even the building itself. You placed real charges on the upper floors to make this all seem like a real threat and get the League's attention, then left a trail of dummies for us to follow."

"Oh no, Knight of Gotham," Her voice almost dripped with a grin, "Not for all of you. My friends made sure of that. I'm afraid, the only one I'm interested in today, is you."

As sharp as his reflexes were, she was upon him again before he had the time to react. Her elbow dug its way into his chest and hurled him halfway across the room and into a concrete pylon. Dimly, he heard the crack of bone echo somewhere in his chest, but the flaring pain spreading across his back had most of his attention. The rest of it was focused on the woman in black who appeared to have turned her head to watch his several unsuccessful attempts at getting off of the ground, before she ripped the knife out of the wall with the same amount of force Superman tended to use when plowing a bus halfway through a two way street. It wasn't hard to see why the knife had gotten stuck in the first place; a thin sheet of drywall was the only thing between the room and bare concrete beneath it and she'd managed enough power to drive her weapon a good four inches into it.

What worried him more, was there wasn't a scratch on the knife, and now it was coming back at him.

Batman hooked an arm under his damaged ribs, trying to stifle the protesting cough that seethed between his teeth. He hurt, but didn't have time for the pain. She'd only touched him once, and had put him on his knees, twice might very well kill him. She stepped over a piece of C4, as she reached down to haul him back up to his feet by the neck, too busy toying with the blade in her hand to notice the minuscule pellet that had found its way into his.

There was a ridiculously long list of hundreds of people that could have been hiding behind the black mask in front of him. Right now, the only thing that he needed to know was the person intent on killing him was a meta and hopefully an excellent shield.

He couldn't tell if she saw the subtle flick of his wrist or not, but she sure as hell noticed the sudden firestorm that suddenly erupted from behind her. She let out an angry shriek as the bulk of the force caught her hard across the back, and her grip loosened enough for Batman to flip a foot under her chin and wrench himself free before the flames reached him.

Smoke and dust created a hazy fog, the glow of the fires reflecting off of the millions of airborne particles swirling in the air. Batman pulled his cape protectively around himself as a shield against the heat rolling off of the dancing flames, as his eyes scanned the fires for any sign of his assailant. Every nerve in his body was standing on edge, waiting for her to come launching out of the blaze at him. Instead, there was only the briefest flash as the knife was launched from the aftermath of the explosion straight at him. He twisted to the side a second too late, feeling the impossibly sharp edge slice cleanly through the layers of Kevlar and into the muscle of his arm before it embedded itself in a storage container behind him.

"Surely you didn't think you were going to get rid of me that easily?" Her voice chuckled, as her form stood out in the orange glow.

"I was about to say the same to you," Batman growled, reaching for another pellet in his belt.

"Which is almost cute…," Her laughter carried, "…considering you've already lost."

"You sure it's not your friends you're thinking of?" A red blur zipped into the room, bringing a plastic crate smashing into the side of her head, "Cause you're the last one standing. Take five Bats, I'll finish up here…"

"Flash! Wait-!"

The Scarlet Speedster however, was already rushing at his target at full speed. Instead, he only met with empty air and hot concrete, as she moved out of the way at the last second, letting Flash's momentum send him crashing into a pile of rubble. She picked up a larger chunk over her head and casually strolled over to where Flash dazedly held his head. A whizzing noise split the air a fraction of a second before another smaller explosion detonated next to her head. Flash picked up on the opportunity and came to a skidding halt next to Batman, who already had another batarang ready in his fist.

"Thanks for the save-" Flash grinned, earning himself a glare from the Dark Knight.

"Stay out of this," Batman snarled at his fellow Leaguer, "She's after me."

"Aww…" Superman's voice sounded from the stairwell entreance, "Didn't your mom ever tell you it's not nice to exclude people from the group?"

"I'm afraid I've never gotten along well with others," The assassin replied simply, "And this game seems to be getting a little too unbalanced for my taste."

She took a couple steps backward, only to bump into the familiar star-spangled uniform of the Amazon Champion herself. Diana floated only an inch or two off the ground, the sight added height giving her enough of an imposing figure that would have had most criminals turning themselves in of their own free will rather than go a round with her. Her blue eyes narrowed dangerously at the veiled fugitive, the command to stand down pouring off of her form.

"I think you've made enough of a mess," Diana warned her.

"You have no idea, Princess."

Just like that, the woman kicked a brick of the explosives into her hand and pelted it hard into one of the still burning pieces of debris next to her. The explosion rocked the building, and threw more debris and smoke into the dust choked air. Even before, the dust managed to settle away, Batman could already tell his attacker was long gone, the explosion creating a hole into the city's miles and miles of sewer networks. He pulled up an mental map of the tunnels that ran under the building and found almost a dozen different conduits that a person could fit in and make an escape. Even if they were to go after her, it would be nearly impossible to track which one she would have taken. A breeze ripped through the floor, courtesy of Flash, to expose the gaping hole where the assassin had made her getaway.

"Well, four outta five ain't bad," Flash said, trying to lighten the mood as he peered into the hole.

"I'm sure that's _exactly _the sentiment Waller will share when Cadmus and the rest of the world is picking apart such a sloppy performance," Batman silenced Flash, aiming a glare in Superman's direction, "I had it under control until you three decided to break from the plan."

"We felt the first explosion from almost six stories up," Superman tried reasoning with his friend, "We thought that you needed-"

"Something just didn't seem right," Wonder Woman cut off the Man-of-Steel before he could use the "H" word, "We had no idea there was someone else down here."

"Which is why you should have let me take care of it," Batman growled, striding away from the other three to where the knife was still embedded in the storage crate.

Superman didn't say anything more, sensing a useless argument, and put his hands in the air for a second before he and Wally gathered the scattered pieces of bombs and moved to the upper floor for the rest. Wonder Woman remained behind, examining the hole for any clue as to which way the woman had fled. Only when they were alone, did she speak again.

"That wasn't fair Bruce." She casting a sideways glance at him, "Kal was worried one of the bombs had gotten you."

"It's no excuse." Batman replied shortly, prying the knife free with some effort and dropping it into a clear sealed bag, and made to leave, "He knows what the risks are every time we're called to help, and last time I checked, I didn't need a sitter."

Daian frowned and flew in front of his retreating form. Batman gave her a paint-curling glare that very plainly stated "Get out of my way.", but she remained impassive. That look might have worked on anyone else in the Watchtower, but she knew by now when she was the one getting it, it was an empty threat. Her eyes wandered down to the gash on his arm, and had seized it before he could pull away.

"You're hurt." She said accusingly, her eyes boring into him.

"That's nothing new, Princess." Batman pointed out, glancing passively over his injury himself. The wound was deep, but not serious. The blade had been hot when it cut through the skin, leaving melted bits of Kevlar stuck to him, but also had acted as an effective means of cauterizing the injury. He'd need stitches and a course of antibiotics, but what little bleeding there was had already begun to stop, making tending to the wound a low priority.

"You're still supposed to be taking it easy," Diana said, letting his arm go, "The doctors say your won't be back to 100% for another few weeks or so-"

"And no one needs to know that except for me," He glowered back at her, "They need to see that I can take a hit and still keep coming at them."

"So possible suicide is worth that? That incident at San Baquero scared us all," She said calmly, not looking away from the lenses that hid his eyes, "We almost lost you before we even knew what you were doing-"

"You didn't need to know. Neither of you did. You had a job to do and I made sure that you could finish it," Batman said, "Just like today."

Diana's eyes sparked angrily at him.

"So you want to be a martyr?" She said, taking a step closer to him.

"I am what I'm needed to be Diana," He snarled back, "That's what the Justice League is. You know that."

"If that's even remotely true," Diana said, "Then why can't that apply to the people who care about you?"

Batman felt his fists tighten at his sides, the blood flow to his fingertips slowly being choked off as the pressure increased. He'd given her his reasons all before, however irrelevant they might have been concerning the two of them. It wasn't like he had many enemies that could even so much as scratch her flawless skin, but at the same token, he'd been the one watching helplessly as she disappeared in front of his eyes. Seeing it once had almost torn him apart; he didn't think he could stand seeing it again. Clark certainly hadn't been the one to inspire his actions to literally tackle a nuclear warhead.

He'd tried several times to coax the words from his throat before, to no avail, and tonight was no different. He knew she could tell there was something waiting on his lips to be spoken, yet they remained stubbornly shut as the Dark Knight pushed past her to leave Diana standing alone looking after him.

"Because that's just the way it has to be."

Gotc: Well? Better this time right? Dialogue, action, troubled romance? Not enough? Fine. Well, it gets better here pretty shortly. After all, I'm sure you still have questions that are going to need answering……Buahahahahaha! Anyway, this is just the pilot chapter really, so if you all out there would like to know where it goes from here, theres that little button at the bottom of the screen. Yeah, no, to the left. Little more…. Stop! That's the one. Click it, tell me what you think and I'll get working on chapter two!!!! Laters!


	3. A Headache

Gotc: Yay!! Since I've got reviews, I shall continue!!! And just to let you all know, God has a sense of humor. I post the first chapters of this and then end up sick myself. Ha ha freakin ha….. Anyway, since my head no longer hurts when I look at my screen, I shall continue on with my postings!!

Remember: I don't own the League, and in light of what I will be doing in future chapters….it might be a good thing.

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 2: A Headache

Diana set her tray down in on the empty table, about a quarter of her attention on a case file she was helping Green Arrow with, another quarter on the rubbery pasta on her plate, leaving the rest to dwell in a damp cave miles below her on the planet's surface.

Frustrated, she stabbed a piece of the pasta, and chewed on it absentmindedly. How in the Gods' names one man could be so utterly confounding and infuriating was an answer that had to be beyond even Apollo's Oracle. He adamantly refused help of any kind to the point where nearly anyone with an affiliation to the League needed a stamped and signed day pass from him. And Hera forbid if they happened to be caught outside after the sun had set….

Now it had been two days he'd remained stubbornly locked in his private fortress, working through every minute speck of evidence they'd managed to collect from the Lex Corp building. Luthor's associates were being overly helpful, and there was still no evidence that their employer had any connection to the recent attack, which frustrated Superman. Wally's talents had been put to use sifting through the mountains of data that continued to pour in from Batman's own massive data base, and had been told in no specific terms that his date with Linda was off, which frustrated Flash. And aside from the continued dump of information they'd yet to decipher, there'd been no word from Bruce. Which frustrated Diana.

"You look like someone spit in your pasta," A familiar voice said in front of her.

Diana blinked and glanced up at Zatana in front of her, trying not to look like she'd been caught off guard. She could only imaging the look her mother would give her if she _ever_ found out she was being distracted over a man.

"Life would be easier if they had," Diana managed a smile and motioned to the empty seat next to her.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with a certain man who takes 'Tall, dark and handsome' a bit too literally does it?" Zatana asked, disregarding her own food for a more appetizing conversation.

Diana rolled her eyes. She didn't particularly approve of Zatana's interest in League gossip , but she was one of the only ones she could talk to about Bruce who had once been in her position. At any rate, she certainly had no intention of hunting down Selina Kyle to have a conversation about how to deal with her ex-lover.

"It's just the same old story Zee," Diana sighed, shaking her head, "He's the most stubborn man I've ever met. And of course he had to be one of the first men I did meet…."

"Don't beat yourself up Di, "Zatana shrugged, taking a sip of her iced tea, "If you haven' t read the tabloids lately, the man behind the mask seems to have that same effect on anyone missing a 'Y' chromosome, and on a couple who aren't, but I wouldn't say that too loudly unless you'd like an early grave."

Diana wasn't sure what would be funnier, the idea of another man professing his undying love to Bruce Wayne in public, or the Batman trying to maintain the death imposing bat-glare while Flash scooped his lower jaw off of the floor. The thought did bring a smile to her face, then a snicker that spread to Zatana until both of them had tear in their eyes.

"Please tell me that actually happened," Diana managed between laughing breaths.

"He was…… leaving one of my performances in New York when we were dating," Zatana could hardly breathe, "Guy comes out of nowhere and tries to full on kiss him! The media had a fit!!! It took three weeks and him taking half of the Playboy Mansion out for a five day cruise!"

It took a minute for the laughter to subside between the two, and though she was grateful for the reprieve, Diana still head no solution with how to deal with Bruce

"Look Di," Zatana sobered slightly, "Bruce isn't complicated, no matter how much he likes other people to think so. Gotham's a city of corrupt politicians, bent cops, fake socialites, and people who'll lie to make a quick buck. Even Bruce to some extent had to bend to that to keep the name Wayne free of suspicion. But when you came along? I mean, had you ever told a single lie in your entire life? You were honest, sometimes brutally so. I think he found it refreshing. If you need to talk to him, just go."

"Even if I were to go see him," Diana pointed out, "It's after midnight in Gotham right now. You know how he gets about late night visits."

"Di…." Zatana smiled, getting up from her seat, "If you can count on one hand the number of times that man has been truly mad at you for anything, then you shouldn't be wasting your time anyway."

Diana grinned as Zatana strolled off into the growing crowd of dinnertime heroes. Her pasta hadn't been warm to start with and by now it was ice cold. But….Maybe she could pick something up in Gotham while she was there….

----

Patrol had been quiet, though whether it was a curse or blessing was yet to be seen. He'd worked for two days straight, without sleep, trying to find out just who his mystery attacker was and any possible motive she might have had to go after him in the first place. It just didn't make sense. If she wanted him dead, she could have simply detonated one of the bombs while he was within blasting range. Yes, there was the fact the muscle defending the set-up was upstairs, but it was possible for to detonate a bomb without bringing the building down on everyone. But she didn't.

He'd run through several possibilities in the last two days. Perhaps she didn't have enough knowledge of the building in order to place the charges effectively, or didn't realize it could be done. Both were unlikely scenarios however. She was well trained, and the real charges had been well-put together. She knew her target. She knew he wouldn't have taken another step once he figured out the bombs were just a diversion. No…it was planned. The heavy metas kept the police and any backup busy, while he worked through the bombs getting further and further away from any help. He was willing to bet she didn't think it would take very long to kill him either, since there were only a few villains on the higher floors and the League had near unlimited resources when it came to a rescue situation.

So she wanted to kill him, she wanted to get him alone so she could do it quick and then what? What happened after that? There was no face, no name and without that, he had no ultimate motive for the act. Which was why he'd been two days without sleep.

Batman leaned back against the cool stone of the Gotham Cathedral . He would have given anything to take off his cowl for just a second so he could just rub his eyes and temples to relieve some of the building pressure hammering away behind his skull. The migraine had manifested earlier that morning while as he worked through what had to have been the last of the Manor's coffee stores, haunting the screen of his main computer. Unfortunately for him, the pain had yet to relent and since he'd never been one for unnecessary medications, aspirin was the one thing he was missing from his belt.

A near infinitesimal sound just above him caught his attention, the faintest hint of floral and sea salt dancing on the night's breath. He didn't have to look up, as the sound of heels landed gracefully on the rooftop and walked over to him. Most of the League had stopped trying to sneak up on him a while ago, but she was the only one who had stopped waiting for his acknowledgement they'd arrived.

"You look like you've got a headache." She said, coming up along his side.

"With all the hours I spend staring at a computer, Alfred thinks it's a wonder I don't need glasses," Batman replied wryly, feeling some of the pain abate with her presence, "I take it there's been no leads on the League's end of things?"

"Nothing," Diana shook her head, "And truth be told, I'm not expecting you to find one."

"And why's that?" He asked, his voice displaying the humor his face refused to show.

"Because I've just found out from a certain butler of yours that you haven't slept since the attack," She said sternly in a voice that was none to approving.

"There's an armed and dangerous killer on the loose looking to kill me, with no clear motive as to why," Batman said, dropping back into full business, "And since she obviously didn't succeed her first time around, that means she's plotting another attack. Sleeping is a luxury I don't have time for."

"Ever think that this is how she plans on doing it," Diana scoffed, placing one hand on her hip, "You were wounded, and by now have to be clinically fatigued. I think she's just trying to get you to drop dead from exhaustion."

"Her and half of Gotham." Batman said simply, turning to fire a grappling hook to the nearest building.

"Then maybe the other half's in on it and they're going to be the ones to do you in because you've gone so long without sleep you can't see straight!" "Diana said, frustration seeping into her voice she stepped in the way.

Batman narrowed his eyes, meaning to tell her to get out of his city, like he would if it were Clark or anyone else. The problem was, it was Diana, and she hardly fell into the "anyone else" category. He could tell by the look in her eyes there was something that she needed to say, and she wasn't about to let him take so much as another step without hearing it. Besides, even if he could get a shot off, she was fast enough to catch him in mid air before he'd gone 20 feet anyway.

"What is it, Princess?" He relented.

"It's you Batman," Diana sighed, leaning against the edge of the roof, "Something's been bugging you lately and I can't figure out what it is."

"I thought we already addressed this killer issue."

"Don't start the playboy act with me," Diana gave him his own glare, "You know full well what I'm talking about. Ever since that day, where you and John try to tell me that we traveled back in time and I vanish, you've been different."

"Meeting an older version of yourself tends to put a new perspective on things," Batman said shortly.

"That's just it," Diana folded her arms, "You're perspectives haven't changed…You have. You've isolated yourself and almost stopped coming to the Watchtower altogether, you're being overly harsh to Clark-"

"If the Boy Scout's skin is thick enough to deflect bullets, he can deal with some criticism." Batman shot back.

"He's doing the best he can, with the circumstances he's been given, and it doesn't help when you go looking for every crack and flaw the man has."

"I don't go looking," Batman countered, "But when he makes a mistake, it needs to be brought to his attention. Because it's a hell of a lot better coming from me than it will ever be coming from half of the world's military powers."

Diana opened her mouth to start yelling at him again, and suddenly realized the slippery trap she'd nearly dove headlong into. Bruce had been ready to end this conversation since she set foot on the rooftop, and now he was playing her temper against her and diverting her attention from the real reason she came from the Watchtower to start with.

"Fine," She relented, switching tactics.

"Fine?" The puzzled look on the Dark Knight's face visible even with the cowl covering half of it.

"There are weak places with how the League handles things that could very well be considered a threat to those not properly informed of why we take the measures we do," Diana nodded, "And it's better to have them exposed by one of our own than by an outside entity."

"However," Diana continued, making sure he knew she was not finished with him, "That's no excuse to be avoiding the Watchtower altogether, or me."

Batman's brow furrowed in frustration. A year ago, she would have taken his bait and had slapped him once across the face before angrily putting as many miles between her and his city as she could. There was always the possibility of him nursing a broken jaw, but at the very least she would have been out of his way. Now? Now, she'd been talking far too much to Zatana and Shayera for advice than he was comfortable with. It wasn't anything he couldn't deal with yet, but the fact she'd learned to pick up on his strategy made things more complicated.

"Being impartial to one means I have to be impartial to everyone, Princess," Batman said flatly, "Your double was fighting with that version of Superman too. And you were right there on the council when Clark banished Doomsday."

"And you weren't," She reminded him, "You weren't there when I had to _carry_ Clark off of that island he was so weak from the beating he'd taken. You should know better than anyone else what kind of damage a relentless psychopath can do, just imagine if the Joker were a metahuman. We did the best we could with the tools and resources we had."

"That's what the Lords believed too."

"Bruce," Diana sighed shaking her head sadly, letting her hand rest against his shoulder, "If you truly think that I would be so ready to abandon my own ideals in favor of what they became, then perhaps you don't know me as well as you like to think you do."

Batman almost winced inwardly at the disappointment in her voice. It was a tone he was used to hearing almost on a daily basis, whether it came from the air-headed dates that hung off both arms or from Alfred over some detail of his life that he sacrificed to maintain his dual identity. HE thought he'd become immune to the guilt that accompanied it, but when it came from Diana…

She let her hand fall away and turned to leave; deciding that coming to Gotham had indeed been a waste of her time. She never expected to get a full out confession with a detailed list of everything that plagued him, but even just the tiniest bit of recognition that perhaps she wasn't just the lesser of two evils he'd chosen to work with. Zatana's earlier assurance echoed over and over in her head, but every word that had so far come from Batman's mouth had worn it away until the words were hollowed out.

She turned away from him and stepped onto the building's edge to leave when his voice forced her to halt mid-step.

"Maybe dinner would help." He said quietly enough that she wasn't entirely sure he'd spoken.

"What?"

"Dinner." He said again, not quite looking directly at her, "You said I don't know you as well as I think I do, so I thought dinner might give me a chance to remedy that."

"And just where exactly do you expect us to get the kind of privacy for that?" She asked, feeling her heart rate pick up, "I don't have a secret identity like you, but I don't want all of Gotham to know what my favorite color is either."

"Alfred had been talking about having more company over," Bruce's charm squeezed through the Batman's persona, "He says the Manor's too empty anymore since the new Watchtower was built."

"Hm," Diana grinned, "Well, if it's for Alfred, I don't think I have a choice. Did you have a day in mind?"

"Are you free tomorrow?"

"I suppose I could drop by. Will 7 be alright? I don't want to keep him waiting after all…"

"I think he'll be glad to hear you're coming."

"Then, I think I'll let you get back to your city," Diana smiled gracefully, lifting off into the air, "And I'll see you tomorrow then."

Batman watched her until the fog rolling in off the harbor swallowed her into the night. He winced as a stab of pain shot through his temples, jarring him back to reality. He was supposed to stay away from her, not get attached like this. Yet here he was inviting her out to the Manor for dinner, because he was afraid he had hurt her feelings?

He drifted back and forth between elation and irritation for the rest of the night, before he finally settled somewhere in the middle by the time he arrived back at the Cave. Alfred was already waiting for him when he strode over to the computer and pulled off his cowl to finally rub his aching temples.

"I made you a cup of tea instead of your usual coffee tonight, Master Bruce," The old butler said setting the tray down next to the console, "And I have the last round of your antibiotic ready for you as well."

Bruce normally would have said something about the switch in beverage, but his surrogate father no doubt had picked up on his headache already and had made the decision for him. So instead, he grabbed the three pills off of the tray and tossed them down his throat before following them with a mouthful of the hot tea.

"Diana's going to be stopping by for dinner tomorrow, Alfred." Bruce said after he'd finished the cup, "Would you mind making dinner for two?"

"I would be delighted, Sir," Alfred smiled wryly at his charge, "It's always a pleasure to have her around. I'll be sure to have something special prepared. Of course, you'll need to be getting to bed soon then, Master Bruce. After all, you'll want that headache to be gone by the time Miss Diana arrives."

Bruce nodded wearily, not feeling like arguing tonight. There were still dozens of files and pieces of evidence that needed his attention, but his aching head wasn't about to let him go through any of it tonight. A few extra hours of sleep would be a welcome relief after the last two days, he decided as he trudged up the stairs to the Manor behind Alfred.

-----------

"He's still on his feet."

"Not surprising, considering who it is we're dealing with. But even he won't be running around for much longer. The test subjects were showing symptoms at 36 hours after inoculation."

"What about the rest of them? Especially Diana. They'll come looking for us once they realize what's happened."

"They're of no concern to us. Even the mighty Justice League can't save him now."

Gotc: Buahahahahaha…..Oh I love being evil. So very much. Will you all find out why this story is called Quarantine next chappie? Maybe…..but if you want to know, remember to hit that little button that says review!!! Laters!!!


	4. Symptomatic

Gotc: So how many of you have I frustrated so far with the cliffies? Sorry (kinda). Anyway, just finished watching the Superman/Batman Public Enemies and I have to say: Who in their right mind would have put this in the kid section of Blockbuster? On the same note, it's a great movie and anyone who loves Batman and Superman should definitely watch it in the near future. The banter between the two made the movie and had me laughing my head off. Still, not for the small children. Watch it and you'll see why…

Now back to the task at hand! I don't own any of this stuff. That'll change when I rule the world, but until then, no suing please and thank you!

* * *

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 3: Symptomatic

Bruce hadn't had a good night's sleep since he was 8 years old. The nightmares of that fateful evening in a Gotham alley haunted his vision every time he closed his eyes. For years he'd searched unsuccessfully for a way to sleep without being haunted by his past. Hypnosis, pills, acupuncture and herbal teas from every country had all done him no good. In the end, the only thing that drove the nightmares from the few hours he did slumber, was working his body to the point of absolute exhaustion where the black veil of unconsciousness could claim him and the dreams could not find him.

But tonight, even that wasn't enough.

_Voices echoed in the dingy Gotham streets; a taunting, mocking laughter following Bruce as he raced through crowds of faceless people. As he pushed through one group, he bounced off of their mass and his head struck a burnt out lamp post. A sharp note rang out in the night as his head bounced off of the rusting metal. The faceless crowds all stopped in their tracks and turned in a single motion to face him. _

_Several reached out to grab him, their cold hands stinging bitterly against his flesh. He managed to land a few good punches that freed him from their grip and bolted down into the nearest alleyway. He could fight a few dozen of them, but there was no way he'd be able to put down every one of them before they'd overwhelm him. His head pounded furiously, making the normally familiar backalleys twist and turn in an unfamiliar manner until they had robbed him of any sense of direction._

_That's when he heard it. A harsh report that sounded just around the corner from where he stood. Bruce didn't want to look, though his legs continued to move him against his will. He knew what would be waiting for him as he rounded the corner, but what greeted him was something that went beyond his definition of a nightmare._

_Crimson was sprayed across the dingy brick, painting a ghastly scene on the narrow walls, but one that paled in comparison to the one still taking place. Diana let out a choking gasp as the dark figure that held her by the neck let her fall onto boneless legs. Her eyes stared at him in a lifeless stupor, while the ruby ichor relentlessly trickled from the gaping hole just below her throat. He half ran, half stumbled to her side, and pulled her cold form to his chest all the while screaming her name as if it would bring her back to him._

_Bruce turned to the dark figure in the shadows, ready to kill the murderer still casting a malicious presence over the gruesome sight. He reached out to grab the menace by the collar and drag him into the poor light so he could at least see the face of the man he was about to kill. But it wasn't a face that he saw enter the light first, it was the black symbol of a bat._

_Bruce released the fabric as the man stepped into the light on his own, the towering figure of his alter ego bearing down on him, still holding the glistening gun that killed the goddess at his feet. He could see the demon's smile shine in the poor light, and even through the lenses of the cowl, two eyes red as the pools of blood at their feet…._

Bruce jerked upright in bed, torn between the renewed agony in his head and the fresh churning that brewed in his stomach. He had only a second to shove his head into a small trashcan, before the bile forced its way up his throat. A deep cough brought the contents of his stomach splashing against the thin metal, the acrid smell of the acids quickly filling the air.

He tried to catch a breath between the rolling heaves, but only managed a brief gasp of air before the next wave would crash down upon him. The nausea continued for what felt like hours, his stomach continuously giving up more and more fluid, when it felt like it should have been emptied long ago. To make matters worse, every heave forced blood towards a head that already felt as if it were on the brink of exploding from the pressure. With every round, the force of his stomach's rant caused the room to spin and dim for a moment and relent only long enough to start it all over again.

Bruce finally caught a long enough break in the relentless pattern to stagger to the bathroom, and ended up nearly collapsing against the sink. The sharp contrast of the chill of the marble and the heat now radiating off of his own body in its own right felt as if it would burn the flesh off of his bones. The sensation didn't last long, before his stomach rolled painfully again and had him doubled over the toilet's edge.

His renewed efforts echoed hoarsely in the bowl, and summoned the only other person in the manor. Bruce never even heard the old man step in, before there was a firm hand supporting his quaking shoulders. He hated being like this. He could be fatigued, beaten and tortured and still manage to fulfill his self-appointed duty every night. Had his stomach not had complete control over him, he could have perhaps appreciated the irony of it, after all, the time tested "mind over matter" was the foundation of his entire life. Except for this. There was no willing this away.

The heaving at last became less and less until all that remained of it was the nauseating reminder that still churned in his gut. It was miserable, but at least he could breathe again. Bruce slumped heavily against the wall, no longer sure if his own muscles could support him anymore.

"I must say Master Bruce," Alfred said sympathetically, "It's been quite some time since the last time I saw you in this predicament."

"Came…n Is..lands…." Bruce panted, before his stomach threatened to reenter his throat.

A hiss escaped through his clenched teeth as he fought through the feeling of his intestines tying themselves into knots. The sound of running water reached his ears, before a cool cloth pressed itself against his burning forehead. Bruce reached up to hold the cloth, while Alfred turned away to clean up after his surrogate son.

It wasn't long before the marble became increasingly uncomfortable and drove Bruce to his feet to totter back in the direction of his waiting bed. Creature comforts, however, did not interest the muscles of his legs, which promptly gave out a few steps into his journey, letting him crash back into the sink counter instead of hitting the ground. He turned to push himself off of it, and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

His skin had turned the color of diseased alabaster, flecked with what he assumed would become a growing number of starry red spots that had taken advantage of the new color to make themselves known. Sweat dripped down his face, a combination of his sudden fever and recent activities, the rivulets finding their way down his features. They eyes were their own horror story. The force of his stomach didn't break open his skull like he felt it would, but the blood vessels of his eyes were another matter. The rouge crimson fluid stained the corners of his eyes, slowly creeping ever closer to the center as it moved to fill in the available space.

He might have cared more about his appearance, had the pounding in his skull not resumed its duties. He managed to stumble into his waiting bed, with a little help from Alfred who had produced a glass of water and a new basket in the likely event his stomach would turn on him again.

"Shall I inform Miss Diana of your condition and reschedule your evening?" Alfred asked, once Bruce was back in bed.

"Nhn.." Came the mumbled reply, followed by a slight nod.

Alfred frowned. He'd seen Bruce come home black, blue and all the shades that were in between, and still have the fight in him to follow through with his daily obligations with Wayne Enterprises. It was a _rare_ occasion, when he didn't have even the strength to stand on his own feet. Reluctantly, the old butler left the room and started towards the Cave to make his call.

-----

"Red or blue?"

"On you? Please. You could make a trash bag look good."

Diana rolled her eyes , as she renewed her assault on her meager closet looking for something to wear for her rapidly approaching date. Shayera picked through her rejected outfits, putting different pieces together to make up new outfit hopefuls with little success.

"Di, the man invited you to dinner," Shayera pointed out, "If he doesn't like anything you wear, he's not good enough for you."

"It's not about the outfit, Shay." Diana sighed, "I just don't want this to be a onetime thing, you know?"

"What makes you think it would be?"

"I don't know," Diana shrugged, "I just get this feeling…..like it's not meant to last. Of course, I know what Bruce would say if I ever told him that-"

A ping in her ear cut off the rest of her thought. The tone was lower than the general tone she heard when it was one of the League trying to contact her, which meant it was only one other person. Batman.

"Wonder Woman," She answered, putting a hand to her ear.

"Miss Diana," Alfred's voice came over the com-link, "Forgive me for the interruption."

"Alfred?" Diana said, surprised to hear the older man's voice, "What's wrong?"

Shayera suddenly became interested at the old butler's name and waved her hands trying to get Diana to reveal more of the situation.

"Well my dear….I'm afraid Master Bruce is not going to be able to attend your engagement this evening." Alfred informed her, "He's….well, incapacitated."

"Oh! He's not hurt is he?!" Diana asked, her mind suddenly churning to the worst case scenario.

"No, no. It would seem Master Bruce has contracted a case of the stomach flu is all and is currently in bed." He assured her.

"I see," Diana tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, "Is there anything I might be able to do to help?"

There was a slight pause on the other side of the line. She'd met Alfred only a few times before, and she was fairly certain that had the man been born a few thousand years earlier, he would have been a revered seer by many. She had no doubt he'd picked up on her subtle change in tone.

"Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done for the flu, save for letting it run his course." He said thoughtfully, "He'll need fluids to make sure he doesn't become dehydrated, but the Master's never been an exemplary patient when it comes to him being ill. I've never been able to get him to stay in bed until he's fully recovered, but perhaps you'd have better luck than I?"

Diana let a small smile spread across her face. It certainly wasn't what she had pictured, but still. Baby steps.

"I'll be there in a few minutes Alfred," She said, before breaking the connection.

"Well!!?!" Shayera demanded impatiently.

"Bruce is sick, and I'm going down to help Alfred until he's better," Diana said simply, picking out a black turtleneck from the pile of discarded clothes. No need to get dressed up if Bruce wasn't going to be able to appreciate it.

"Tsk, tsk, Di…" Shayera clicked her tongue, "Taking advantage of a man while he's down?"

Diana said nothing, but let the grin on her face grow wider as she shoo'ed Shayera from her room while she got dressed.

-------

The moan found a path through Bruce's tightly sealed lips. He'd tried several times to fall back asleep , but the pain that had started in his head had begun to spread to the rest of his body. It wasn't the acute throbbing pain that beat away behind his eyes, this was a slow and steady burn that worked its way deep into every muscle he possessed. It was nearly worse than the headache in its own right.

Bruce rolled over again to try and relieve the returning churning of his stomach, when a small noise of someone entering the room reached his ears. The footsteps treaded far too lightly, and did not adhere to the strict posture with which Alfred carried himself.

"D..ian..a?"

"I heard you weren't feeling well," Her voice whispered quietly next to him, as the bed shifted slightly with a new weight, "And I thought Alfred could use a hand. l I heard you were an unruly patient."

"Heh….I ….never liked….being sick……" Bruce's weak chuckle evaporated into a pained groan.

The bed shifted again and a cool rag was pressed over his face and eyes, but not before light fingers brushed a few stray pieces of hair that stuck to his head. The touch lingered for a second, trailing along the edge of his face. In any other situation, he would have drawn away or reprimanded her for such an act. Then again, it wasn't they weren't the usual circumstances. Bruce reached up to catch her hand before she could pull it away. He didn't know if he was dreaming, but it was certainly better than the last one he'd had. At any rate he wasn't ready for it to end just yet. Maybe she would have been more than willing to stay like that for the rest of the day, had a sudden and familiar feeling break over him again.

* * *

Diana wasn't sure what she was expecting when she entered the bedroom. The contrast of pale skin and the fevered flush in his cheeks seemed impossible. He looked like he was sleeping, until she heard him moan in pain. She crossed the room as quietly as she could, but even in his state he still could manage to infuriate her with his uncanny ability to sense her presence.

"D..ian..a?"

Diana sighed and steeled herself for the eventual eviction from his house. Still, she wasn't about to go quietly, so she decided to head him off before he could get that far.

"I heard you weren't feeling well," She said no louder than a whisper, sitting next to him on the bed, "And I thought Alfred could use a hand. I heard you were an unruly patient."

"Heh….I ….never liked….being sick……" Bruce managed to dig up a sense of humor, before it evaporated as quickly as it had come.

She could tell his fever was bad, if not from the color rising in his face, then the pained breaths that would manage to escape him every now and again. She noticed a damp cloth next to the table and reached to lay it across his face. Absentmindedly, she reached out to brush away a few strands of his dark hair that had fallen across his forehead.

"_What am I doing?!"_ She scolded herself, unable to draw her hand back.

"_I'm monopolizing,"_ she reasoned with herself, _"When in the Gods' names am I ever going to get an opportunity like this again?!" _

Deciding that she would just have to take the chance, she let her fingers trail across his face. Even before she touched him, she could feel the heat almost rolling off of him in waves. Now, it shot through her arm via her fingertips. He stirred slightly and raised a hand to hers. Aware her time had come to an end, Diana move to pull her hand away, only for his to hold it in place. It was a different contrast, to feel his hand without the always present Kevlar in the way.

Then it happened. She felt him shudder violently, and almost throw her off of the bed as he lunged for the waste bin next to them. Unsure what to do, she held onto his shoulders until as the heaving continued. It wasn't until he started coughing, though, did she hear something splash into the bottom of the container. The smell was the next thing to assault her senses. It was familiar and alien all at the same time, smelling like everything but what it should. But the heaving was relentless and carried on for several more minutes, each deep cough bringing up more and more to fill the trashcan.

Bruce muttered something unintelligible between gasps, a single word over and over whenever he caught his breath. The shuddering became worse, even as the heaving subsided, though the liquid continued to spill from his stomach. Something wasn't right here. His stomach should have been empty already, especially if he'd been this sick all day.

"Alfred!" Diana called out, fumbling with a lamp to get some light into the dark room.

"Bl…..ood….." Bruce panted, as the light finally flared to life.

Diana turned back to him to see his lips dripping thinly with crimson, and a larger quantity of it coating the bottom of the trashcan. He seemed to fall utterly boneless and nearly tumbled off the bed, had Diana not caught him in time. Gently she rolled him onto his back, kicking the foul-smelling can away from the bed. She was a warrior, trained not to panic even in the worst of circumstances, but even she could feel her heart begin to race as fast as his drummed under her fingers. But it wasn't until he looked up at her, did horror finally manage its grip on her.

The blue eyes that the mask hid weren't the ones staring back at her.

The eyes staring at her were blood red.

* * *

Gotc:Buahahahahahahahaha…….Ah….cliffies….They're so much fun. For me. Well, I gave you your first big clue here folks. Anyone know what he's got yet? Well if not, you've got until my next post to figure it all out…… So if you want to know, well you guys know where the review button is!!! Laters!


	5. Diagnosis

Gotc: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Being evil is so much fun!!! *sigh* I should prolly get help for that eventually…. Anyway, glad to see I have so many of you confounded and frustrated both with Bruce's mystery disease and with my love of cliffies. However, kudos does go to one person in our reviewing community and at the end of the chappie they shall receive a wonderful prize of cupcakes and waffles for their extensive knowledge of disease symptoms! Why they figured it out that quick is a little creepy, but impressive all the same! But more on that later. Right now, let's keep my rear out of the slammer and writing more for you to read!

Disclaimer: I do not own Justice League, but if DC is ever willing to sell…..

* * *

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 4: Diagnosis

Basic first aid was something Batman had insisted each and every League member be trained in from day one. Injuries were unfortunately a part of the job, and not all doctors were the good hearted souls parents told their children to trust. An E.R. doctor presented with an opportunity to implant some device for a wary government, sell a vial of blood to the highest bidder, or even reveal to the world the identity of one of the world's greatest heroes might prove too strong a temptation for even the most devoted physician. That's why the League had their own medical staff on board the Watchtower. It was their job to treat injured heroes; the first aid was to make sure there was still someone left to treat.

But this was something different than Diana was used to.

She was taught to apply pressure to the bleeding area to staunch the flow until the body's own clotting factors could take over, or other medical attention could be administered. Only there was no wound for her to administer to. Bruce was vomiting the crimson fluid endlessly, a clear mix of his own saliva tinted with the red fluid that went straight from his stomach into the can next to his bed. She couldn't see what had happened inside of his body, or was still happening as the gagging continued.

Alfred tried to assure her that the blood was simply the result of Bruce's stomach working against itself to evict its unwanted visitor, and the redness that had nearly taken over his eyes was from a few broken vessels not up to the strain of his malfunctioning digestive tract. But as the hours wore on, there was no confidence in Alfred's assurance as he came and went with fresh towels and water to combat the persistent fever.

"Is there anyone in town who could come take a look at him?" Diana whispered quietly outside Bruce's bedroom door, wincing as another bout heaving took him.

"I'm afraid Dr. Thompkins is not in town this week," Alfred shook his head, worry etching itself into every word, "She won't be back in for another few days at best. There's no one else Master Bruce, or I for that matter, trust with such a thing."

"Is there any way you can get a hold of her?" Diana asked, feeling more and more helpless with the situation. She had been blessed by the Gods with infallible health, but she had seen what the flu could accomplish in its less fortunate victims. And the more time went on, the less she felt like the flu was to blame for Bruce's current condition.

"I've already left her a message to contact me as soon as possible, but there is a chance she will not get it for some time yet." Alfred said, his gaze fixed on his surrogate son.

"His fever's getting worse Alfred," Diana said with a sigh, "He's in pain and the vomiting and blood just won't stop. There's nothing in the Cave that will help with the pain that won't make the nausea worse, and we can't give him anything for the nausea if he can't keep it down long enough for it to work."

Diana paused to hear Bruce give a sigh of relief as the wave of heaving subsided. A second later, it turned into a hiss of pain as the headache came back full force. He was just trading one agony for another at this point. She walked back into the room to freshen the rag over his eyes, as Bruce laid back against the pillows again.

"How do you manage to do this to yourself," She sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day.

"Gotham sewers… aren't known for being clean…Princess," Bruce rasped, peeking out from beneath the damp cloth.

"Fine, so being septic from some sharp edge floating in days old sewage is better than the flu?" Diana retorted quietly, pushing the cloth back to his eyes.

"It's…a possibility to consider. This….isn't like any flu…I've ever had."

Diana said nothing as she held a piece of ice to Bruce's chapped lips for him to suck on to ease the dryness in his throat. Even sick the man still analyzed every little thing that came to his attention. But that didn't mean he didn't have a point. She could feel the heat coming off of him like a hot coal from the fever. Then there was the blood, his eyes, the pain….What if he was right? Was there something else behind his symptoms than the average flu bug?

"What do you suggest then?" She asked.

"Blood work," He replied, licking the excess moisture off of his lips, "Testing for sepsis, toxins…anything that's there and shouldn't be."

"And who's going to run the tests? I have no idea what anything in your subterranean fortress does, and while I have the utmost confidence in Alfred's abilities, I doubt lab technician is something he's had the time to add to his résumé."

"I…can. I just need to get to the Cave-"

"Like Hades you are," Diana pushed Bruce back onto the pillows, "It's at least a 15 degree difference in temperature down there. In your condition, that's like writing your own death sentence."

"Then what do you…suggest?"

"You have a miniature hospital employed on board the Watchtower," Diana said calmly, "And J'onn's on duty tonight. I could ask him to run the tests, and you could stay in bed and rest."

There was silence in the room, save for Bruce's own raspy breathing, while he mulled it over. Diana knew he didn't like the idea of someone else doing the work for him when he was able to do it himself.

"Bruce please don't do this," Diana pleaded when he didn't say anything, "Let me get J'onn to run the tests, if for nothing else than my own piece of mind."

Another second of silence elapsed, before a thin smile twisted one corner of Bruce's mouth. Diana felt cheated for a moment as she was almost sure the playboy persona had just tricked her into expressing a bit more emotion than she had intended to. Still, if that what it took to get the job done, then perhaps she could tolerate it this one time.

At last, Bruce nodded his head with what she guessed was a consenting sigh.

"I'll need my suit."

-------

Wally never could get the hang of the time changes on board the Watchtower. The sun was either rising or setting somewhere on the lines of every hour and a half, and they were switching between dates just about as often. He felt like he was on a time machine, except this one wouldn't let him off.

"Flash, we need the eastern sun shields up," Mr. Terrific reminded him, as the first glow of the star began peeking out from behind the planet, "Not everything on this Tower moves as fast as you , ya know."

"Yeah, yeah," Flash waved his hand nonchalantly, as the other flipped the switch to adjust the shield's position, "So how's Asia fairing this morning?"

"Nothing major," Mr. Terrific shrugged, "Minor earthquake in China. The area was mostly rural, so the damage is minimal as far as we can tell. Superman and Supergirl have a handle on it."

Flash sighed, feeling a little guilty for wishing something would happen so he would have something to do. A calm day was always a good day in a hero's book, but he just had a hard time sitting still.

"Wonder Woman to Watchtower." Diana's voice suddenly came in through the control board as if to answer his prayers.

"Flash here Di, and let me say am I glad to-"

"Not now Flash," Her voice sounded harried, even across the connection, "Is J'onn there?"

"I made him get something from the Commissary," Flash said sobering at her tone, "What's wrong?"

There was a long pause on the other side of the connection. The silence lasted too long without any static or indication that they had lost contact, and the agitated manor she'd contacted him set a bad feeling rolling in the pit of his stomach.

"Wonder Woman? Do you copy?"

"Yes. Just get me a medical transport for two and ask J'onn to meet us in the Med-bay."

"Sure thing. Stand-by."

It took a half second for him to lock onto the signal from Diana's com-link and divert the landing point to a special area of the medical wing used for receiving injured Leaguers. At first he thought there was something wrong with the coordinates, but after doing a speedy double check, he figured the location had to be right. And if Diana was in Wayne Manor asking for help, it wasn't a good thing.

"Hey J'onn you there?" Flash pressed one hand to his head.

"Yes Flash, is there a problem?" The calm voice echoed in his ear

"Not sure, but Diana wants you to meet her in the Med-bay asap." He said, then added mentally, "_She's coming from Wayne Manor and bringing company."_

"Understood. Bring her up and I'll see her there."

Flash entered the code to activate the teleporters, and leaned back in his chair, the uneasy rolling stubbornly settling in. Just a second ago he was wishing for something interesting to happen, now that calm day wasn't looking so bad after all.

---------------

The med-bay was all but empty when solid ground reformed beneath their feet, which infuriated Diana all the more when Batman relinquished his hold on her to stride over to one of the waiting bed as if there were nothing wrong with him. She was nearly about to criticize him for his stubbornness, when J'onn materialized from the floor.

"_Damn that man."_ She swore in her mind, baffled by how he managed to do that even in his condition.

"Batman, Wonder Woman," J'onn greeted each of them, "Flash informed me that my presence was needed here."

"I need some bloodwork." Batman said before Diana had a chance to give the whole story, "And an IV dose of Compazine. Sooner rather than later."

J'onn nodded quietly, and collected the drug and several empty vials before returning to Batman's bed side. Diana turned her back as Batman pulled off the top half of his costume to give J'onn better access to a vein. She was certain he was rolling his eyes at her behind the cowl, after all she'd been nursing him while he'd been bent double over a tin trashcan for the better part of the night, so seeing him shirtless was hardy a compromising situation. J'onn paused for a moment as Batman removed his cowl, startled by the redness of his friend's eyes. Then again, if he'd been sick for any length of time, the delicate blood vessels could only take so much continued strain. At any rate, everything else still appeared to be more or less normal. For Batman anyway. The bruises and bandages were still present after his encounter with that assassin, but they didn't look to be giving him any problems otherwise.

J'onn gave Batman's arm a quick tap to locate a suitable vein and made quick work of filling three vials with his blood before handing him a cotton ball to staunch any bleeding. Next came the dose of meds to help quell his stomach, but as the needle broke the skin, it felt like molten rock was being pushed into his veins.

"Is there any particular tests I should be running?" J'onn asked, knowing better than to use his own abilities when it came to the Batman.

"Check for poisons or the presence of any toxins related to sepsis." Batman grunted, rubbing the muscle where the needle had stuck him, and pulling the cowl back over his head.

"And run a test for the stomach flu," Diana added earning herself a glare from the Dark Knight, "Just to be sure."

J'onn quirked an eyebrow, but didn't ask any questions as he handed the vials off to one of the technicians to start the analysis.

"I may be sick, Princess," Batman glowered, ignoring the fact that J'onn was still in the room, "But that does not mean I can't help myself."

"You're going to help yourself straight to the grave," Diana shot back, hurt by his sudden change in attitude, "Especially since you were hardly even able to hold yourself upright less than 15 minutes ago! I was asked to help make sure you didn't make yourself worse and that is exactly what I intend on doing!"

Diana turned to J'onn who was politely standing off to the side of the room, not quite able to leave before he was spotted.

"J'onn? You'll be sure to let _me_ know when the results are in?" She asked sweetly, emphasizing the fact that she would be the first to know and not hear a filtered version of it through Bruce.

"Of course," J'onn said, casting a sympathetic look at Batman who could have give Superman's heat vision a run for his money. The Martian didn't wait another second to make a hasty retreat from the room, and head in the direction of the lab. He didn't want to be anywhere near those two when the pressure finally boiled over, especially since he could already hear most of it though they had yet to say a single word to each other. The lab at least seemed to be far enough away from the impending fight for it to fade into the background noise of the rest of the Watchtower's activities.

"Do you have the baseline values yet Riley?" J'onn fought back a smile at the situation of his fellow collegues.

"Yes sir, but something's definitely off. The potassium value is unusually high and the plasma looks hemolytic." The tech said, handing off a sheet of paper, even as he began another test.

"That doesn't seem right," J'onn said, scanning over the values himself.

"Not for a sepsis case, sir. I've already started on the toxin panel, but I don't know of many that can hemolyze blood outside of a snake bite or arsenic."

"No…" J'onn shook his head in agreement, "There would have been signs of that and other than having some nausea…"

J'onn looked back over the values again, scouring his own brain for anything that could cause such an obscure reading. But when the toxin report came back clean, J'onn found himself stumped.

"Antimalarial drugs have some hemolytic side-effects," Riley suggested, "Quinine more specifically."

"Malaria…" J'onn mused. Bruce's red eyes were the first thing to jump into his head, but if he had malaria and knew about it, then why had he asked to have the tests run? Then again, it was very much like Bruce to keep things to himself, especially if Diana was the reason they were running tests in the first place. Still, malaria was a tropical disease, and while Batman was regularly around the world aiding the League, the tentative diagnosis nagged on J'onn's mind.

"Prepare me a blood smear," J'onn consented after a moment, "But use the electron microscope for this."

"Not sold on Malaria?"

"No, not quite."

-------

Diana sat in a chair next to Batman's bedside, where he seemed to have finally fallen asleep. She made a mental note to ask J'onn for another dose when he returned just in case they would be needing it before whatever bug had worked its way out of Bruce's system. A part of her truly hoped it wouldn't be long before he did make a recovery as she watched him sleeping in the bed. After all, since the first day she'd met him, the Batman had always been more machine than man. Seeing him be so vulnerable and weak… she almost understood why he insisted on being so belligerent.

But on the other hand, she relished the feeling of him just allowing her to be near him. It was hard to push someone away when your body was fighting other ailments, and it was as close as she feared she would ever get. After all, how often did the Batman ever come down sick?

A heavy sigh escaped her, as she continued her vigil. As soon as he was well, the walls would be back up around him; those damned layers of Kevlar separating him from the rest of the world and every one in it. So for now, she'd just have to make do with opportunity the gods had granted her in hopes she might find a weakness in that armor…..

A sudden hiss of air snapped Diana out of her reverie, followed by the most minuscule shift in pressure. The breech alarms weren't going off, but a sudden flurry of activity seemed to have erupted just outside the med-bay. People were scurrying back and forth in a very big hurry, and they were all wearing…biohazard suits?

An instant later, three of the suited men came rushing into the suite, their urgent voices muffled by the flexible plastic helmets. Instinct kicked in before reason, as Diana hurled the nearest one reaching for her into a small table. The noise roused Batman who, apparently did not like being woken up by men wearing space suits, quickly joined her in dispatching another of the men. Diana frowned seeing him exert himself when she was perfectly capable, but she was glad to see the nausea was no longer crippling him either.

Batman's join into the fray caused a simultaneous look of fear to spread from one face to the next in the room, and each of them slowly backed away while screaming the same muffled phrase over and over again. It wasn't until a split second later when J'onn came bursting through the door himself did the reason for the hysteria become clear.

"Diana," J'onn said, his voice in no mood for disobedience, "Get away from Batman. Now."

"Wha-"

"I need a blood sample from you immediately and one from anyone Batman has been in contact with since the symptoms began." J'onn continued, pulling out another needle and vial.

"J'onn, you're not getting a damned thing until you tell us what in Hera's name is going on here!" Diana shouted back at him, furious at their treatment.

"I take it I don't have the flu." Batman said observing the biohazard men, as they helped their fallen comrades out of the suite.

"No," J'onn shook his head, his orange eyes filled with pity and sorrow as he regarded the Dark Knight, "It's Ebola."

Even behind the lenses of the cowl, Diana could see Bruce's eyes widen in sudden shock, before he sat back down on the bed with his head in one hand.

"Diana, I need a blood sample from you, now." J'onn said reaching for her arm, "We need to test you to see if you've been infected too-"

"Not until you tell me just what it is that he has-"

"Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever," Batman said raising his voice, but the words that followed sounded hollow and mechanical, "Is characterized by the trigger of massive internal hemorrhaging, multiple organ failure, brain death, and the virus's ability to destroy all body tissues except for skeletal muscle and bone. Out of three known strains, two cause symptoms in humans. Ebola Sudan has a 50% mortality rate, while Ebola Zaire killed 9 out of 10 people it infected…"

Diana didn't even feel the stick of the needle in her arm, as Bruce looked away from the floor and up at her.

"It's a death sentence."

Gotc: Oh, I tried not to end with a cliffe…..but the evil tendencies took over. Anyway, next time I won't leave y'all hanging like this….maybe, but for now Let us get to the grand prize of a month's worth of waffles and cupcakes for correctly guessing my evil virus of dooom goes to…..bioteacher!!!!! YAY!

And as an added bit of disclaimership since you all now know just what it is our Caped Crusader has….A great thanks to The Hot Zone by Richard Preston for aiding me in my research on this topic so that I may give you all the best fic I can!

Anyway, if you all want more on the topic, you know what to do by now!! See you next chappie!!


	6. Denial

Gotc: Yeah….so, sorry. I had an idiot for a professor and found myself having to re-do a 13 page paper on Samuel Adams, plus finish up a short story and somehow study for finals. They make you work for the end of the semester here… Anyway, here I am, ready to get this fic moving once again, and I'd like to thank all of you who have so kindly reviewed and I look forward to your support in the future! And now to keep my butt out of prison…..

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me. Sue elsewhere.**

**Authors Note: All quotes from "The Hot Zone" will be italicized in bold font.**

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 5: Denial

The Earth that hung so delicately in space seemed to have halted on its axis from Diana's restricted view through one of the med-bay's windows. Two biosuited nurses were making sure she was going to remain in the bed next to Batman, while another forever seemed to be pulling sample after sample from the catheter in her arm.

Batman's situation was nothing if not worse.

He had a full contingent of medical staff working furiously to hook him up to any number of monitors, IV stands and a whole host of machines she'd never even knew the Watchtower was outfitted with. Diana wasn't sure what was worse; watching Bruce slowly be transformed into something more mechanical than human, or the fact that the one man in the world who adamantly refused any help of any kind, was letting them do it. Diana knew that the staff were doing their job to save him, but a part of her wished he would lash out and push them all off like she'd seen him do so many times before. Instead, he calmly watched them, the lens of his cowl no longer serving to hide an identity, but the ruby hued orbs behind the lenses.

"Diana." Batman's voice called her back to her thoughts, with a tone she'd never heard him use before.

His gaze was solely focused on her, staring straight through the hustling bodies of the staff. Diana realized it hadn't been the staff he'd been watching.

"Are you ok?"

It took her only a moment to put the last piece of the puzzle together. It was guilt in his voice. Fear and blame that made a shallow crack that threatened to shatter the impenetrable persona of the Bat if he was the one responsible for sharing his fate with her.

"I'm fine," She assured him.

"No headaches? Nausea?" He pressed her, despite the fact he'd heard the nurses ask her those very same questions. It wasn't a matter that he didn't believe her, but rather he needed to hear the answers for himself.

"Nothing," She said again, "I promise. I'm fine." Physically, at least.

Mentally, her own thoughts were swirling so quickly in her own mind, it was difficult to focus on any one aspect of what promised to be an increasingly worsening situation. Bruce also seemed to have picked up on that as well, as his gaze narrowed into a frown of disbelief. However, he was only able to maintain the glare for a second, before a wracking pain tore through his stomach and sent him scrambling to reach the edge of a biohazard container next to his bed. The staff only had two reactions to his sudden lunge, fear he'd rip the IV lines out of his arms, or absolute terror of the unspoken monster making its entrance into the outside world.

For a solid minute the suite was filled with the sounds of him spilling the contents of his supposedly empty stomach into the bin. From her vantage point now, she could see the bloody vomit pour from his mouth and leave his lips and teeth a shiny red, mixed with black granules she couldn't place. The smell was the next thing to hit her, a putrid mix of raw blood and infection.

**_It's a substance known as the vomito negro, or the black vomit. The black vomit is not really black; it is a speckled liquid of two colors, black and red, a stew of tarry granules mixed with fresh red arterial blood. It is hemorrhage, and it smells like a slaughterhouse. The black vomit is loaded with virus. It is highly infective, lethally hot, a liquid that would scare the daylights out of a military biohazard specialist._**

It came to an end just as abruptly as it had come on, and left Bruce panting to catch his breath. His arms, robbed of the momentary paralysis that had locked him in place, now shook with the effort to hold his body aloft over the bin. The staff exchanged wary glances, silently drawing straws as to who would be the one to dispose of the stuff, when a younger nurse reluctantly stepped forward to clean up. But before she managed more than two steps, Batman seemed to have already recomposed himself and held up one hand and reached down next to the bin for an airtight lid and sealed the container himself before he let her take it. Diana let herself smile a little, as Bruce wearily rolled back onto the pillows. He was still Batman.

The nurse had just begun to shuffle out of the room, when J'onn drifted up through the floor, not bothering to rematerialize and compromise the care being taken to contain the virus. It was one of the few times Diana could ever remember seeing J'onn look so harried.

"Well?"Diana asked, anxious to end the waiting game she'd been forced into.

"Your blood's clean Diana," J'onn announced, earning an audible sigh from nearly everyone in the room, "I've even tried introducing the virus to a sample of your blood to ensure that you won't develop an infection and it would seem you are very much immune to the effects of this particular strain."

"What about Alfred? The Manor-"

"Clear. We've sent a team to decontaminate the grounds, and put Alfred on a watch for the next few days, but it doesn't seem likely that he'll break with Ebola." J'onn answered quickly.

Diana nodded passively as a nurse came up to her and began to urge her out of the room and towards a door at the other end of the suite.

"One of the nurses is going to take you through a decontamination process," J'onn continued, "Then you'll report to the Meeting Room. I've already contacted the Founders for an emergency meeting."

"I'll need a laptop," Batman said plainly.

"You need rest," J'onn argued back, "There's nothing more you can-"

"Do not stand there and tell me there is nothing I can do, J'onn," Batman growled dangerously, his voice raising ever so slightly, "I may be trapped in this box and condemned to die, but I didn't just spawn this virus from nothing. It had to come from somewhere, and you're going to need all the help you can get finding out where before it makes its way into the general public."

There was a tense moment where no one moved or even dared to breathe while J'onn met Batman's glare. J'onn seemed as unwavering in his commitment to do everything in his power to save his friend as Batman was in using the time he had left to do something besides sit in a bed and wait for his end. The fight was a battle of wills, and within the League, Batman was unmatched. J'onn sighed and nodded his consent to the nurse escorting Diana out of the room to bring the requested item back with her.

There was a gentle rush of air at Diana as the doors to the outer world slid open. She paused for only a second at their threshold and stole a glance at Batman. His face had once again been set firmly into a mask that gave nothing away. For once, she wasn't sorry to see that hard, calculating persona back in full control. Alfred was ok, she was going to be just fine; now they had a job to do.

* * *

The meeting room was deathly quiet with no other noise between the six founders than the sound of their own breathing. Superman's knuckles were ashen as he peered over the top of them to stare at nothing in the distance.

"Jesus Bruce," The Man of Steel murmured, "Ebola…"

"It wasn't a planned event, Kent," Batman's voice crackled harshly over the intercom that served in his place, "And given how unpleasant I happen to find it at present time, I suggest you get over it and start working on how to find out how to stop this from hitting the general population."

"Batman's right," Shayera said, though with none of her usual confidence behind her voice, "Our focus should be to stop an epidemic before it begins. Do we have any idea where this thing could have come from?"

J'onn tapped a button on the table illuminating a 3-D map of the globe with several glowing marks dotting its surface, though the majority were in tight glowing clusters across Africa, while others were sparsely scattered in few other countries of the world.

"This map shows every known outbreak of the Ebola virus since its discovery. As you can see, the virus has mainly been constrained to the African continent since the virus tends to wipe out its host before transmission has a chance to occur, which leads to the virus burning through one area in a short amount of time before dying out." J'onn explained pressing another button so two more dots appeared in a different color, "These points indicate the only two places on Earth that the Ebola virus is stored, one being USAMRID, the other a Russian facility."

"So we're looking at a possible break-in at one of these facilities," Green Lantern summarized, "It's as good a place to start as any."

"Shouldn't we be looking into _how_ Bats ended up with this psycho virus in the first place?" Flash suggested, "Or even where he ran into it? We might be able to backtrack from there at least…"

Diana frowned as the uncomfortable question reared its head once again. Ebola wasn't the type of thing someone just came down with like a common cold. Even if the virus had been stolen out of a military deep-freeze, that meant _someone_ had wanted to see the Batman dead….

"_..You've already lost…."_

Diana could hear that mocking voice run through her head, made all the more clear by the fact that its owner had no face to attach to it. That assassin had tried to kill Bruce, not that she was the first, but there was something final in her words that made Diana's blood run cold.

"The assassin." She said in a hoarse voice.

"What?" Superman turned, hearing her speak for the first time.

"The assassin from the bomb threat." Diana said more clearly, "She tried to kill Batman, while the rest of us were preoccupied with the fighting upstairs, but what if she didn't need to kill him? What if she just needed to break the skin?"

**_Ebola is highly infective and as few as 5 or 10 particles of the virus can start an explosive infection in a new host._**

"The knife," Batman followed through with her thought, "She contaminated it's edge with the virus. I was dodging killing blows, not a glancing shot."

"That was only a few days ago," J'onn frowned, "You symptoms wouldn't have progressed this far in that span of time…."

"We may be looking at a weaponized version of the virus," Batman pointed out, "And what better way to test it than on a member of the Justice League?"

"That doesn't change the fact that they would still have had to get the virus in the first place," Green Lantern argued.

"No," Superman agreed, "But it does narrow down our scope of suspects. After all, I can't imagine there's too many people with the capabilities to modify a virus with the intent of using it as a bioweapon."

"There's not," Batman responded accompanied by the unmistakable sound of a keyboard accompanying his voice, "Lex Corp, Wayne Enterprises, Star Labs and Cadmus are the only ones who have the facilities to deal with a level 4 hot agent in that capacity."

"And since I'm guessing you would have noticed someone using your labs, we can rule out Wayne Enterprises?" Superman said.

"Split up." Batman ordered, before his side of the com went dead, "One person to each of the deep freezers to check for any security breach and the rest to check out the labs."

The room seemed to fall even more quiet without the ever vigilant Bat waiting to hear their response on the other side of the speaker. It was an odd feeling of relief and distress. Talking to Bruce was talking to a dead-man, and yet each of them knew that it could very well be the last time they would hear him speak. No one said a word, and no one seemed to be able to bring their eyes to meet. It was finally Flash who broke the uncomfortable calm.

"So do we draw straws?" He said, the laughter in his voice unusually hollow and forced.

"Superman should handle USAMRID and let Lantern deal with Luthor," Shayera rattled off.

"I'll take care of Star Labs," Flash offered.

"Then I'll go to the Russians," Shayer nodded, looking up at Diana carefully, "Unless you want-"

"No," Diana cut her off, "It's alright, I'll go to Cadmus and see if I can get anything out of Amanda Waller. J'onn? Will you stay and keep an eye on Bruce?"

"Of course," The Martian concented, "I'll inform you if his condition changes."

Everyone seemed to take that as a sign the meeting had come to an end and rose from their chairs to leave. Diana was the last to rise and follow the others down the hall. The medical wing was not far down the corridor, and she understood the pain of the trial Hades imposed on Orpheus to return his fallen Eurydice to the Living as her pace led her farther and farther away. Her reluctant steps caught Superman's attention, who silently dropped back to walk next to her, though unsure of what help he could offer.

"Kal," Diana said, never looking away from putting one foot in front of the other, "He's going to make it."

Superman winced. It hadn't been so much a statement as it had been a plea. He remembered from day one, the headstrong Amazon he'd come to embrace as a part of his own family. Her pride and confidence set Diana apart from the rest of the League, yet when encountered with her stubbornness, all he could think of was Bruce. Maybe that's why it was painful. To hear it in her voice, the pleading that this was only a nightmare, tied a knot in his throat that kept back the lie that it was going to be ok.

* * *

Bruce wiped the blood from his mouth as another container was shuffled out of the room. It was taking everything he had to keep up with the demands of his ailing body. Every time that foul smelling ichor welled up from his stomach he didn't see blood; he saw the millions of demons that were going to rip him apart from the inside out.

**_Viruses are molecular sharks, a motive without mind. Compact, hard, logical, totally selfish, the virus is dedicated to making copies of itself - which it can do on occasion with radiant speed. The prime directive is to replicate._**

He vainly wished for the fire in his torn stomach to cease, but biology rarely has time to wait on the desires of its host. Again, he rolled back to the side of the bed for another container, but the last had yet to be replaced. The thought flickered briefly that there couldn't possibly be anything left for him to give up, yet the grainy scarlet wash that painted the floor said otherwise.

_**The vomiting goes on endlessly. It will not stop, and he keeps bringing up liquid, long after his stomach should have been empty.**_

A gasping cough and it retreated again to gather strength for the next wave. Bruce flopped back against the thin pillow to catch his breath. His eyes drifted shut of their own accord despite the ache that built behind them, and an image of Diana filled the darkness. He wanted her to come back, but the Bat reminded him that her purpose was more important than his own needs. It would be up to her and the others to make sure no one would have to go through the hell he was enduring, but that knowledge didn't stop him from longing for the relief that he found from her presence.

But biology rarely has time to wait on the desires of its host. Bruce couldn't even roll over before the next wave broke over him.

* * *

"It certainly took him long enough."

"True, but then again, it's better not to rush things. No doubt they're already looking for us."

"_She'll _be looking for us, and she will find us."

"Then we'll just be ready for when she does.

* * *

Gotc: Hrmmmm….A bit shorter than I'd been planning on, but oh well. We'll see if you guys can catch on. Still….It was short…. I guess I'll just have to hurry up and type up another chapter to make up for it, eh? At any rate, I'm reeeeeeeeeallly looking forward to the next few chapters. After all, Ebola is a _fascinating_ disease…….BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...ahhhhhhhh, poor Bruce……..Well, I hope that after such a long delay, you all still remember where my favorite button is! Press it and I'll get you your next helping of fic! Laters!


	7. Anger

Gotc: Blech it's hot here…. Hit 99o plus the humidity. Therefore, I've made the decision to lie about in front of the fan for the rest of the summer. Whether or not I'll be allowed is another matter entirely….. Sigh….

Anyway, apologies for my delays (again…), heat waves kinda suck the life/creative process away. And yes, I am cataloguing these marvelous excuses for why I haven't written to be enjoyed at your leisure whenever I get around to finishing it! (Anyone else see a pattern here?) I have the general plot of this whole thing mapped loosely in my head, but was having a real hard time putting chapters together, so thanks to a suggestion/pointing out of coincidences by FelineFriendly (Your crate of waffles is in the mail) I now have the path of my next few chappies! So enough reading of this confounded thing! The story's down there, no there, below the disclaimer. Now you got it. Go read.

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.**

**Warnings:**** Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease. Due to this, there is a strong possibility this fic will be moved to the "M" rating. I will make my decision based on the reviews I get from this chapter. **

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* * *

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_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 6: Anger

Amanda Waller hated calm days. It gave her the time to see all the things that needed tending to. Cracks in the walls, lapses in security, misfiled reports, missing funds… The list seemed to stretch on. CADMUS seemed only capable of functioning when a crisis was on their hands. Without the chaos of the world outside, the whole division seemed to turn in on itself to create its own catastrophe. And when their own slice of the world started to implode on itself, who else did everyone come to but her?

"I don't care what time it is on the East Coast!" Waller practically snarled into the phone at the unfortunate soul on the other end, "You get Eiling on his feet and in my office by tomorrow afternoon so _he_ can explain why I found our vanishing funds in a military R&D communications project!"

The sound of the phone slamming against the desk echoed harshly against the walls of her office. A desk, two chairs and heaps of files, complaints and requests stacked on all three were the only decoration present in the windowless room. A red one poked out from underneath one stack, which contained the President's demand of a reason for why a genetically engineered metahuman escaped from what should have been an impervious compound. Her superiors in Washington were getting evermore persistent in their "requests for an internal investigation of CADMUS operations". It was the politically correct way of saying they were getting tired of waiting for their sacrificial lamb. Apparently, it wasn't enough to say that a scientist had obviously lost his mind and let that monster Doomsday out.

A headache started to build in her temples, and nestled in to the recesses of her brain to keep her company for the day. She needed an aspirin, a coffee, and fresh air, in that order, or she might be inclined to murder the next person to walk through her door. Feeling no remorse for leaving the mess in her office behind, Waller quickly threw together a semi-palatable coffee and swallowed two aspirin before making her way toward the building's roof.

Almost as soon as she had taken her first breath, Waller felt her headache begin to subside. The evening air felt beautiful in contrast to the stale air of the converted compound below. Still dressed like a company CEO, she was glad there was no one around who could possibly see her stealing a few moments for herself. The abandoned slums of downtown should have hardly been the setting for a government facility, but CADMUS wasn't exactly common knowledge to the general public, so the location suited their needs well enough. She took another slow sip of her coffee, letting some of the tension float off on the next breeze.

She had no real plan of going back inside anytime soon, when her cell began to ring in her pocket. Eiling. Reluctantly, Waller tipped the lukewarm contents of the cup over the side of the building and started to head inside. Any call from a United States General wasn't one to be had outside, no matter how vacant the area seemed to be. She was almost to the door, when out of nowhere a pair of strong hands gripped her shoulders and the ground quickly began to fall away from her feet.

* * *

"I'm here."

Batman's fingers flew across the keyboard, all the while wishing for the computer in his Cave, or even the terminal just down the hall. The laptop in front of him seemed to crawl along in comparison to the hyper-powered machines he was used to working with, which was never a good thing when he needed real-time feeds to monitor the suspected CADMUS facility.

"Are you sure this is the place, Batman?" Diana's voice came in over his com-link, "I've seen ruins in better shape than this."

"The whole neighborhood has been drawing power from the main grid for almost nine months," Batman replied, pulling up another view of the building. The glare of the screen was doing no favors to his aching eyes and head, but it couldn't be helped.

"So? That's something you'd expect from a residential neighborhood."

"Not one that hasn't had a single resident in close to three years." Batman pointed out, "Also, around the same time it started pulling power, subway lines that ran underneath the area were retired either retired or rerouted, citing safety concerns when no previous issues had been found with either the tunnels or the trains. That whole neighborhood had also been slated for demolition, but the date keeps getting pushed back by an anonymous donor who wishes to see the area preserved."

"Alright, so someone obviously wants to make sure that no one is poking their nose around here. Sounds like a CADMUS ploy at any rate." Diana agreed, "So what now?"

Batman glanced at another part of the screen to find Diana a route inside the main building, when he caught a glimpse of himself in the screen's reflection. The speckled rash that had begun nearly a day ago had transformed his face into a collage of bruises. Almost in disbelief of what he saw, he pushed back the cowl, in the hopes that the lenses were faulty and what he saw was a product of a malfunctioning device. It only made it worse.

Red eyes stared back at him, and the bruises had mottled together in a cruel mockery of his cowl. It should have been nothing surprising; he was used to sleepless nights that left his eyes red and bleary, nor was he a stranger to a good black eye that forced Wayne away from the company for a few days. But this….this was no black eye, this was no lack of sleep. Features that had been gaunt the day before now seemed almost skeletal. His skin looked and felt like it was drooping away from his very skull.

_**Ebola attacks connective tissue with particular ferocity; it multiplies in collagen, the chief constituent protein of the tissue that holds the organs together. The connective tissue in his face is dissolving, and his face appears to hang from underlying bone, as if the face is detaching itself from the skull.**_

"Batman?"

"Say again. I didn't get your last transmission." Batman shook his head to re-center his focus.

"I asked how am I going to get inside without being noticed?" Diana repeated, then added in a lower tone, "Bruce, are you should be doing this? You should be resting, or at least-"

"I'm fine." He snapped with a little more venom in his voice than he meant to.

Diana didn't respond back and Batman swore silently to himself. He had no reason to be angry at her. Time was short and she was doing her job. He focused back on the display, forcing himself to avoid looking at the reflection staring back at him. The building itself at one time probably had more than a dozen different entrances, though according to the more recent scans most were simply for appearance's sake. The front door still worked, and back and rooftop entrances were still avenues inside, but he had no doubt in his mind that they would be well guarded. Which left an old fire escape on the sixth floor. It looked like it had been walled off too, but not with concrete like the others. This one had only a thin wall separating it from the interior of either a supply closet or a small office. It wasn't the ideal scenario, but it looked like their only way inside.

"South-east side, sixth floor," Batman instructed, "You'll have to break through some drywall to get in, but it shouldn't be-"

The sound of rushing air through the com-link cut him off mid sentence, followed by a sudden shout of surprise. As fast as she was, there was still no way she could have made it inside so quickly.

"Wonder Woman! Come in!" Batman barked into his communicator.

Silence was the only thing to answer him before the link died all together.

"Diana!"

* * *

"Say again. I didn't get you last transmission."

Diana frowned after the pause on the other end. Batman _never_ missed a single word when someone was speaking to him, even when it seemed he wasn't listening. There had even been an occasion where she could have sworn he was asleep, and yet he managed to recite back almost all of a conversation she'd been having with Superman. Not to mention, used parts of it against her during one particularly frustrating venture down to the Cave. It was a quality that helped to make Batman the respected, and feared, hero he'd become.

Still, being so close to a top-secret government facility could be interfering with the signal to the Watchtower. After all, it wasn't like no one had ever discovered a way to jam the signal when it suited the occasion, so it wasn't beyond the realm of imagination to think that accidentally interfering with it was so impossible.

"_Who are you kidding Diana?" _She scolded herself, _"Blaming bad equipment when the reason is why you're here in the first place?"_

"I asked how am I going to get inside without being noticed?" Diana repeated, hesitated and added, "Bruce, are you should be doing this? You should be resting, or at least-"

"I'm fine." His reply growled harshly in her ear.

An ache settled in Diana's chest. She had long since gotten used to Bruce's callousness, but there was more to it in his voice now. She looked out to the dilapidated building, searching for a way in, as Bruce did, to distract herself from the situation. If anything, it only made her more aware of just how wrong the whole world had become. Batman should have been next to her, explaining away the flimsy reasons they couldn't be together as they waited for an opportunity inside. Now, she became painfully aware that she may never again hear those reasons, or ever get the chance to show him just how wrong he could be. A crunch next to her set her heart pounding, before she realized the frame of the air conditioner had bent under her hand like a wad of old gum. A sigh that held her on the verge of tears escaped her.

"_It's not right."_

Movement on the top of the roof caught her attention, as someone emerged from inside. At first she thought it was simply a worker stepping out for a quick break, until the familiar face of Amanda Waller stepped into focus.

As an Amazon, Diana had always been taught to use her emotions as powerful allies against those who would do her harm. In her time with the League and Batman, that virtue had been contested more than once. She'd discovered that there was always more to a situation than the initial reaction, and that patience would eventually reveal opportunities that would have been missed otherwise. But as the CADMUS Head leaned casually against the railing, the two worlds collided in a raging storm. There were only so many people in the world that would benefit from the death of a Leaguer, and she was staring at one of them. Anger rose in her along with the knowledge that she would never again get this opportunity to get the answers she needed, unopposed. There was no time to even think; before she knew it, her feet had left solid ground and she was barreling as fast as she could toward her unaware target.

"South-east side, sixth floor," Batman instructed, his voice a lost whisper in the blood rushing in her ears, "You'll have to break through some drywall to get in, but it shouldn't be-"

It wasn't until Diana was on top of Waller and hauling her into the air, did the woman realize what was happening and let out a yell of surprise, shortly followed by Bruce's. Diana spared one hand to switch off the device, before continuing further up. He didn't need to hear any of this.

"Wonder Woman?" Waller craned her head to see her attacker, a waver of fear unmistakable in her normally calm voice, "What is the meaning-"

"The Lex Corp break-in a few days ago," Diana cut her off, bringing Waller up to eye level, "What do you know about it?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Waller leveled a glare right back, all the while clinging to Diana's hands in case she had the notion to let go.

"Nothing?" Diana narrowed her gaze, "Pardon me if I find that hard to believe. You of all people always seem to have a hand in this sort of thing."

"I might as well cut off my own foot for all the good it would do me. Luthor is one of CADMUS' biggest contributors and the very idea of attacking his company is ridiculous!" Waller defended angrily.

"I never said his company was the one under attack," Diana loosened her grip slightly; "The bomb threat was a diversion for a weapons test! With the Justice League as guinea pigs!"

To Diana's surprise, Waller stopped struggling. No doubt the knowledge had caught up to her that a fall from such a height would almost certainly be fatal, and struggling would only make her situation worse. Waller knew she'd been caught, she had to be guilty! She had gone after a Founding Member of the Justice League and sentenced him to death, and now was in the hands of an Amazon Princess who could easily see too it she met that fate far sooner than Batman ever would. Why else would she stop fighting to save herself?

Diana scowled, ready to throw Waller to the ground several stories below, when she caught a glimpse of the woman's eyes. Behind the resolute determination that she'd come to know, a new emotion hid in its wake. Fear.

"_Passing judgment like gods," _Diana could almost hear Batman's voice laced with disgust even now,_ "With our super-powered army and our orbiting death ray... Cadmus is right to be scared."_

What was she doing? She was a hero, not an executioner. Diana felt her body drop through the air of its own accord, slowly lowering the two of them back down onto the inviting rooftop. Her legs shook so badly that once she touched solid ground, she had to fall against the rusted out air conditioner for support to keep her on her feet.

"I-I'm sorry…" Diana hardly managed, horrified with what she'd been about to do.

"What kind of weapon?"

"W…what?"

"You kidnapped me off of the roof of my own headquarters because you believed I had information on some kind of dangerous weapon," Waller demanded, shaking off the weakness in her voice, "Anything that has the capacity to drive a member of the Justice League to such an action, presents a threat to the rest of the American people."

Diana looked up at Waller who now stood just a few feet away from her. The CADMUS director was leaning against an old box herself, but was hardly about to give up on finding out why she'd been abducted if she was going to be given the chance. It took a moment for Waller's words to fully register, before Diana managed a response.

"We believe it's a weaponized strain of the Ebola virus," Diana said, forcing her voice to cooperate, "The attack on Lex Corp was a diversion to test the efficacy of the virus against a member of the Justice League. CADMUS is one of only a few places that could have developed something like that."

Diana couldn't miss the way her companion's face suddenly blanched.

"What did you just say?" Waller asked, carefully, as if she'd just realized she was in a bad dream.

_**The first known emergence of Ebola Zaire-the hottest type of Ebola virus-occurred September 1976, when it erupted simultaneously in fifty-five villages near the headwaters of the Ebola River. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and killed nine out of ten people it infected. To mess around with Ebola is an easy way to die. Better to work with something safer, such as anthrax.**_

"We recovered a knife after the attack that tested positive for an unknown Ebola strain," Diana detailed, "Our first reaction was to look at government installations that had the capacity for developing the virus."

Waller was silent for a moment, though Diana could see the wheels turning furiously in her head.

"No. Our Level 4 biocontainment chamber's only real use is for developing vaccines against possible bioterrorism," Waller said, not really looking at Diana, "Ebola….Ebola's something we simply don't mess with."

Diana hung her head, both relieved and terrified at herself. She hadn't let her anger at such a twisted situation result in the harm of another person, yet it had managed to push her right to that point. She felt no reason to push Waller any further. She had the answers she'd come looking for, and there was no point for the woman to lie to her. Not when they shared a common enemy.

"I suppose you'll need to alert security?" Diana sighed, disgusted with herself.

"I should," Waller nodded, "But then we'd be no closer to finding out what psychopath is running free with a hot agent. Of course, if you ever pull me off of the ground like that again, I'll see to it you rot in a dark hole for the rest of your existence, immortal or not."

Diana stood, understanding the unspoken permission to leave. Now that Waller knew, they had at least one more set of eyes to help them find the answers they sought. She wasn't sure how CADMUS could help, when the League themselves had nothing to go on, but it was reassuring to know they weren't alone. Diana pushed off back into the air when Waller's voice stopped her.

"Batman."

Diana turned enough to look back at Waller standing alone on the roof.

"You said the attack was to test the virus on a member of the League," She clarified, "Batman always seems to make it his personal business to be the one to speak with me. But you're here instead."

Diana felt her hands ball up and her nails bite into the palm of her hand. Her heart seemed to weigh her down, even as she remained airborne. Still harder, was finding a way to speak without the raw emotion tearing again at her throat.

"Batman couldn't make it." Was the only thing she managed before flying away from the building as fast as she could manage.

Waller stood and watched Wonder Woman's retreating form until she was no longer even a dot against the sky. She knew she should be more shaken up, yet the uneasy dread that had settled in her stomach dulled the reality that her life had almost come to a very abrupt halt. A shrill ring sounded near her feet, drawing her attention to her cell phone lying forgotten on the ground. She figured she must have dropped it in all the chaos, and stooped down to pick it up.

"Waller."

"Where in the hell have you been! You wake me up in the middle of the night and then have the gall to ignore my calls!"

"Eiling, as much as I would love to point out everything wrong with that particular statement, I'm afraid I have a more pressing matter at hand."

"And what would that be?"

"Get me in contact with USAMRID and I'll debrief you when you arrive. I have an errand to run first."

* * *

"Wonder Woman to Watchtower."

"Diana?" J'onn's voice came in over the com-link, "We've been trying to get in touch with you, but your communicator was disabled-"

"I know J'onn," Diana sighed, "I was…busy."

A long pause on the other end and an uncomfortable tingle at her temples saved her an explanation, but that did little to make her feel any better.

"What's Batman's condition?" She asked, unable to stand the silence any longer.

"No better," J'onn said hesitantly. In truth, that was a lie. The vomiting had triggered a nosebleed that had been steadily running for almost an hour, with no end in sight. If it went on for much longer, He would need to give Batman a transfusion just to keep his blood pressure up.

_**It never came in a rush, but the blood dripped and ran and would not stop and would not clot. It was a hemorrhagic nose bleed, the kind that does not stop until the heart stops beating.**_

"Have any of the others checked in yet?" Diana asked, wearily.

"You were the last." J'onn said, "No one managed to find any sign of malicious intent at any of the sites."

"So we're still at square one?"

"I'm afraid it seems that way. Superman wants to meet with you in Washington as soon as possible to discuss our next move."

"I'll be there."

"Diana?"

"Yes?"

"Please hurry."

* * *

Gotc: Ahhhhhhh…it feels good to have that done. Sorry again for the delay, folks. Life, work, and all that. And the heat….don't forget the heat… bleh. Anyway, don't forget to review. I'm finally getting the hang of my summer schedule, so I'm banking on having more frequent posts. Besides, I can't wait to give you guys the next chapter! Laters!


	8. Barganing

Gotc: Couldn't help myself! I had to go on with the next part of this tale and get a little deeper into the plot of this whole thing! Not that Ebola needs a plot. Speaking of, I finally got my own Ebola plushie. Now named "Reston" (Applause for you who get it) he sits on my desk supplying my inspiration! Though depending on your point of view, that may not necessarily be a good thing. Still I'm rather proud of this chapter in particular, but I'll let the lot of you contemplate why whilst you read!

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.**

**Warnings:**** Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease.**

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 7: Bargaining

Clouds churned angrily overhead, threatening the world with a distant rumble of their intent. The air itself felt heavy and laden, making it lazy and sluggish as it was reluctantly pushed onward by the coming storm. Diana angled downward as she caught sight of a small gathering of bright costumes just outside the city limits. None of them looked happy.

"Everyone made it back ok then?" Diana asked, touching down next to the group, not quite wanting to hear the news she knew was coming.

"Yeah," Wally nodded, "Star Labs people weren't too happy about the surprise inspection, but the director was pretty helpful when I told him what we were dealing with."

"Russians were the same way," Shayera nodded sadly, "But I've never seen a more tightly guarded facility. The Ebola freezer was under strict watch the whole time, and all the samples were accounted for."

"Same with USAMRID," Superman sighed, "I'm not sure I approve with the fascination some of those guys there have with the virus though."

"Any chance one of them might have gotten a little too interested?" Lantern asked hopefully.

"None." Superman said resolutely, "They admire it, respect its power, but I believe each and every one of them fear that damned thing on some level. What about Luthor?"

"Nothing," Lantern rubbed his head wearily, "The guy was cleaner than his lab."

"Are you sure?" Superman frowned, the frustration in his voice tangible as the most likely culprit in his mind began to slip away, "The man's not exactly known for being truthful-"

"This isn't Luthor's doing," Diana intervened before they headed down a dead-end, "Amanda Waller works close enough with him, and she's no fool. If he'd been working with something that dangerous, I think she would have noticed something out of place."

"So I take it she didn't have anything helpful for us either?" Shayera said, not really asking a question.

"No," Diana shook her head despondently, "She was horrified once she knew what we were dealing with."

"There has to be something we can do," Flash reasoned with none of his usual enthusiasm, "We're the Justice League for cryin' out loud! We always win in the end!"

"And how many times has it been solely because Batman was ten steps ahead of everyone else?" Lantern asked grimly.

A long lapse of silence permeated through the group. They'd hit a dead end, one Diana couldn't help but feel Batman would have never run into. He _**was**_ always ten steps ahead, no matter the situation he seemed to be faced with. But now when he needed them the most, they were falling flat on their faces. Perhaps in a lighter setting, Diana might have found Batman's notion that he was disposable, laughable. As it was…

It was a nightmare no one could wake up from.

"He's still fighting this," Shayera said, forcing some determination back into her voice, "So we have no right to be ready to give up this early."

"Shayera's right," Superman nodded, "We can't give up on Bruce yet. We must have missed something. Batman had taken that knife in for analysis, so someone should go to finish that work. In the meantime, we need a background on _exactly_ what this virus is, what it does, where it comes from-"

"What good is that going to do us?" Lantern asked, "If the guys who play with it for a living can't find a way to kill it, how do you expect us to?"

"Batman can't be here to figure this out," Diana said, her voice quiet, "So we have to fill in for him. And that's where he'd start."

A half-hearted smile of agreement rippled through the group. It was the way Bruce always approached a problem he didn't fully understand. He learned what he didn't know, and then what he didn't know he didn't know. Perhaps it was one of the things that had kept him alive for so long, but it was certainly the reason the League had continued to exist far past its early days. Even his declaration of his part-time status, fell by the wayside more often than not when they relied on his knowledge and skill to help them through difficult times. Superman may have been the face of the League, but they all knew it was Batman that gave it its strength.

"We should say a prayer," Superman announced, "I know it's not something all of you may believe in, but I think we could use all the help we can get right now."

"Yeah," John nodded his head, "That's not a bad idea."

He held his hand out to Shayera, who took it without hesitation.

"I'm game," Flash accepted the invitation, taking his place.

"Diana?" Superman asked holding out his hand.

Diana reached out to grasp her friend's hand, when she paused, something in her mind turning over and snapping her out of the fog she'd been drifting in since she left Waller on the CADMUS rooftop.

"Superman!" She shouted suddenly, leaping into the air, mentally berating herself for not thinking of it sooner, "That's it!"

"What? What's it?" Superman called after her, as she faded into the sky, "Diana! Where are you going?"

Her voice was all but non-existent to those still standing on that hill, but Superman's ultra-sensitive hearing still picked up her fading words as she vanished entirely.

"To pray!"

* * *

In millennia past, the grounds under her feet had once been filled with hundreds of people and even the land itself had been flooded with life and power. Now, foreign tourists flocked here to marvel at the empty shell of the former glory the temple had once possessed. Thankfully, in the early morning hours, the ruins were blessedly empty, leaving Diana completely alone.

She moved like a ghost across broken stone and past the crumbling columns. She knew of Delphi through the stories she'd heard as a child, but the vision she held in her mind's eye was nothing compared to what lay before her now. Tourism had left its mark on the once sacred place, as trash blew in the light breeze and the failing moon overhead provided just enough light to see graffiti that had escaped the notice of the grounds curators. Diana had to pick her way past the fallen marble and through the half hearted barriers that kept the visitors away from some of the more important structures.

At last she came to rest within the remains of the temple, kneeling just before where the Pythia would have accepted her so many years ago. She no longer felt like the great Champion of the Amazons, nor a defender of Earth that had protected it in its darkest hours. Instead, she felt like all those whom had come long before her, just as lost and pleading for the answers she so desperately needed to hear.

"Might Apollo, Son of Zeus and Leto," She pleaded to the air around her, "I come to you in an hour of great need. Please hear my prayer, for the time to hear it may grow short. "

There was only the slightest rustle of wind around her, and while only a second ago she was sure she had been alone, she knew that was no longer the case.

"Rise, Daughter of Hippolyta," A gentle voice spoke to her, warm as the sun, "You who hold the favor of my sister are well-met and welcome in my temple."

Diana lifted her head to see the darkness seemed to have fled from the ruins, afraid of the shining deity who stood before her. The Sun-God stood before her, almost too bright to look at as he awaited her to find her voice once more.

"You have summoned me, oh Champion of the Amazons?" The God said, not really asking a question, "The lines in your face betray your purpose here. You do not come in joyous spirits."

"No Lord Apollo," Diana drew a steadying breath, "I come here pleading for your aid as the God of Medicine."

"The immortals have little need for my aid," He said solemnly, "So am I to believe it is not on your behalf you have come to ask my help?"

Diana shook her head. "A comrade of mine lies dying even as we speak now," She said, fighting to keep her voice even, "He is ravaged by a disease which Man has no defense against. We fear he may not be the only one to suffer such a fate."

"The fates of a few mortals are of little concern to myself," Apollo dismissed her concerns passively.

"He is a man who has long put the affairs and wellbeing of others before his own!" Diana felt her spine go rigid, at such a thought that Bruce's life meant nothing, "He fights for those who would never know him, never understand the sacrifices he has made! He leaves his own happiness behind so that those around him might never understand the pain he has known!"

"You speak passionately, Diana of Themyscira," Apollo said, making no attempt to hide the amusement in his voice, "This mortal has had a great influence on you."

"And the rest of the world," She calmed herself, though unable to hide the blush she felt rushing to her cheeks, "It would be a tragedy for him to pass into Hades' realm so soon before his time."

Apollo nodded his head in thought, his face difficult to look at, much less read. Diana shifted uneasily under his scrutinous gaze, the silence becoming a tangible presence around her once again. At last, the god took a step towards her. Or at least it seemed like he had only just moved, though he was suddenly right in front of her, pressing a single finger to the centre of her forehead.

Delphi melted away in a dizzying haze, rushing to swirl around them as they stood fixed in the middle of space and time. It felt like being teleported in some ways, though it was far gentler than the jerking sensation the teleporters always gave her when sending her to and from Earth. It was then she realized that the world was beginning to reform around them. The dilapidated marble columns replaced by sterile steel walls, the broken stone underfoot shifting to the familiar feel of durable composite flooring, and the silence that had been so prominent less than a second before was interrupted by rhythmic beeping and the sound of ragged breathing.

* * *

Bruce lay in bed, dozing in and out of consciousness. The drugs were good, but they did very little for the pain that ran rampant throughout his entire being. The only relief that he found was in the blissful darkness that continually threatened the edges of his vision, no matter how hard he struggled to fight it off. An IV in both arms provided a nexus for the pain to stream into his body, despite the fluids they were striving to replace.

Blood dripped in a steady stream from his nose to run in streams over his teeth and chin to form a gruesome mask on his face. The same bleed had forced him to remove his cowl, only to replace it with that horrific mirrored image. The copper taste had long since settled in his mouth, and no amount of spitting or coughing could seem to rid his mouth of the crimson tint. It was only made worse by the fits of hacking that would overtake him from nowhere. His throat burned from the irritation and felt open and raw, even to the air that rattled into his lungs.

_**Your mouth bleeds, and you bleed around your teeth, and you may have hemorrhages from the salivary glands-literally every opening in the body bleeds, no matter how small. The surface of the tongue turns brilliant red and then sloughs off, and is swallowed or spat out. It is said to be extraordinarily painful to lose the surface of one's tongue. The tongue's skin may be torn off during rushes of the black vomit. The back of the throat and the lining of the windpipe may also slough off, and the dead tissue slides down the windpipe into the lungs or is coughed up with sputum.**_

His laptop sat discarded next to him, the screen still displaying his last entry. His eyes had finally given out on him at last; still taking in the world, but to focus on any one thing for too long would invoke the vomiting again, or trigger a headache from the room beginning to spin though he sat perfectly still. The best he could do was stare off into space, not quite settling his gaze on any one thing and letting his vision blur. He hated feeling so helpless to do anything, but for now all he could do was cope with the symptoms until he could stand to do so no longer.

"Bruce?"

That voice jerked him out of his self-induced haze. With far more effort that he had strength for, Bruce turned his head to see Diana rush to him and kneel at his bedside. He could make out tears gathering to mist over her sapphire eyes, though not quite managing to overcome her years of training as a hardened Amazon Warrior to be shed.

"Diana?" Bruce murmured hoarsely, "How did you-?"

"It…doesn't matter." She said gently, her voice chasing away some of the pain. He could see her take in the damage the virus was wreaking on his body, and the shock in her eyes was understandable. They knew it would be bad, but no one had been prepared for something _this _bad.

"Oh Bruce…" She moaned, gently pushing his sweat soaked hair out of his face.

He closed his eyes and relished in the feel of her blessedly cool hand trailing across his forehead to rest at his cheek. His body moved on its own as his hand reached for hers, to hold it in place. She seemed all too willing to comply with his unspoken wish, until a lance of fire raced across the trail she'd draw against his skin. She pulled her hand back as if she'd been bit as he hissed in pain, only to discover a dark bruise left behind in the shape of her hand.

_**The skin bubbles up into a sea of tiny white blisters mixed with red spots known as a maculopapular rash. The rash has been likened to tapioca pudding. Spontaneous rips appear in the skin, and hemorrhagic blood pours from the rips. The red spots on the skin grow and spread and merge to become huge, spontaneous bruises, and he skin goes soft and pulpy, and can tear off if**_

_**it is touched with any kind of pressure.**_

Bruce threw up a hand to push her away from himself, clenching his teeth to keep from crying out.

"No…stay…you don't want…this." He managed to wheeze out.

Diana was horrified. The only bit of comfort she could offer him now caused him pain, but what sent jolts of sorrow to her core was the fact that he was still trying to protect _her_. She looked up to see Apollo had wordlessly mover to the other side of the bed like a phantom. Even his face was grim as he looked upon Bruce's deteriorating body. Though the god shone brightly in the small ward, Bruce didn't seem to register his presence through the onslaught of symptoms that continued to assail him.

"Can you help him?" Diana asked, as Bruce launched into a fit of coughing that brought more blood up from where it shouldn't have been.

Apollo was silent still, as he raised a hand to nearly touch Bruce's forehead. The light in the room seemed to dim for a moment, as the God of Medicine focused himself on the mortal before him. Diana held her breath as she saw Bruce's body begin to glow with an unnatural light, the man himself still unaware of the deity, though a scream tore from his mouth. Apollo pulled his hand back sharply, his fingers flecked with the tainted blood. The screaming blessedly came to an end as Bruce slipped from consciousness. A frown etched Apollo's features, and Bruce's condition had certainly had not been helped by the encounter.

"He is strong," Apollo spoke at last, "But I cannot help him."

Diana felt her heart drop through her chest. The _God_ of Medicine was Bruce's best chance, and even he'd just said….

"There has to be _something!_" Diana argued back, her mind flailing through the comprehension of what she'd been told, "Anything you can do-"

"There is nothing." Apollo held up his hand to silence her, "He is plagued by a demon that exists beyond my abilities to stop."

"So you would leave him to die?"

Apollo looked at Bruce for a moment, assessing him quietly.

"This man is strong, both in body and mind," He said, "But yes. The demon will eventually consume both before the Boatman calls for him."

Diana felt the world stop for a second. Never before had she actually entertained the thought that Batman could actually die. He'd always miraculously pulled through every damning situation, but this time, there was no mental barrier shielding him, no feat of engineering to stand in the way of the inevitable. It was cruel he'd been condemned, while she could stand in the presence of the same monster that couldn't even touch her.

"Apollo," She said quietly, "I cannot be touched by this disease."

"No, Daughter of the Amazons," He agreed, "You cannot."

"Could you not strip this blessing from me and give it to this man?"

"You would surrender yourself for one man?" Apollo balked, shocked at her suggestion.

"This one man has saved the lives of many, including my own." She reasoned, "I would think of it as repaying a debt rather than surrender."

Apollo shook his head disapprovingly, and in shock himself at the very notion. He knew the daughter of Hippolyta was desperate to save the man before him now, but to go so far…

"Alas, such a thing would be impossible for me to do, for it is the work of another god." Apollo sighed heavily, "And those who bestowed such a gift would be hard-pressed indeed to grant such a wish."

Diana opened her mouth to protest, but was stopped by the god.

"However, your willingness to go so far for your…comrade, is impressive." Apollo continued on, "There is something I can do for him, though it will do naught to slow this demon's attack. While his illness will destroy his body, the toll it will take on his mind will be equally devastating. I cannot shield him from this, but I can offer him a sanctuary, a place to hide his essence where the ravages of the disease cannot touch him."

Diana bowed her head respectfully. It was damn little in the face of the damage the virus was wreaking even as they spoke, but it was something to hold onto, no matter how small it seemed to be.

"Thank you Lord Apollo, for your great kindness." Diana thanked him, though she was reluctant to rise from Bruce's side.

"You may thank me should he," Apollo gestured to Bruce's sleeping form, "find a way to defeat this unseen demon. For now, you must forgive me, as I must return to Olympus, Champion of the Amazons. Shall I return you back to my temple?"

"No," Diana shook her head, taking back her seat next to Bruce's bed, "I'll find my own way."

Apollo let a shadow of a smile flicker across his face for a moment. No doubt Aphrodite had some hand in their meeting, though he knew his sister would not be pleased that a man had grown so close to the Amazon's heart. Still, that though was at the back of his mind as he vanished from the sterile room and left the two alone.

The familiar ground of Olympus materialized beneath his feet in an instant, and a hard scowl now settled firmly across his features. His bow had slid from his shoulder and an arrow was nocked as he stormed through the home of the gods looking for his target.

"Such a foul mood, Brother," Bacchus's airy voice drifted to him from his resting place as he took a pull from the cup in his hand, "What business of the mortals has marred you so?"

"It is no business of the mortals," Apollo all but snarled, "Now tell me, where is Ares?"

* * *

Gotc: Yeah….you can't really blame me for the update…or lack of. It's not my fault Blizzard though it would be a good idea to launch SC2…..and Discovery though the colony needed a second season…on the same day. Fact is…I've been preoccupied. But here we are, finally getting into the meat of all of this! And for the time being I've left the rating alone. I've got a point planned out where I will raise it, but for now it will stay with the mainstream ratings. So remember to press my fav little button and we'll dig a deeper into all this! Laters!


	9. Gathering Forces

Gotc: OMG! 100 REVIEWS! (And yes, this is a very big deal for me.) Well…99, but that's close enough-ish. It rounds to 100 anyway. You may all join in now in my happy dance! :D Thank you ever so kindly to those of you who have patiently waited for me to overcome irritating bouts of writer's block, infected computers(That in particular I found extremely ironic), and just over all laziness at times in my posting habits. I can't promise you it will get better.

Anyway, I'm glad all of you are liking this so far, especially since I only had a half-baked idea where I was going with it when I started. That being said, I kinda feel some of the characters have been a little OOC. Diana especially. I'm really going to try and work on that, but someone out there give me a slap if I start trying too hard, k? I do think you guys will like this one though, even more so since I've been really vague throughout this fic. As for what _that_ means, well you'll just have to read on. I've also broken up my stages-of-death chapters since the next topic didn't really fit what I wanted to do here. They will be back, but they will make a return before too long!

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.**

**Warnings:**** Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease.**

* * *

_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 8: Gathering Forces

Sebastian Hernandez comfortably reclined back in the wicker beach chair, while one of his hotel's female escorts ran her oiled fingers across his shoulders, keeping a careful rhythm with the incoming waves. On his lap, he idly toyed with a laptop, flicking from screen to screen of nothing but solid Russian text. He let out an involuntary moan, as her fingers found a missed knot in his neck that had been bothering him for quite some time and released the tension as easily as undoing a child's shoe. Panama was such a nice place, once or twice he'd considered keeping a home here, but if that escort's hands moved any lower, he might just buy the whole damn island-

A shrill shriek cut through the air and shattered the calm. The Latina girl looked up, startled, not quite sure just what it was that she'd just heard. Some of the birds native to the area would scream in distress, but that was unlike anything she'd ever heard. Her customer, however, hadn't moved so much as a muscle, but seemed mildly disappointed that his idyllic illusion had been ruined.

"I am so sorry, Señor," she quickly apologized, still casting wayward glances here and there to find the source of the sound, "The birds here, they can be so….damn loud."

"Not to worry my dear," The man waved easily, "Wouldn't want things too perfect or I might not believe I'm awake. However, perhaps you could be so kind as to find someone to refill my drink? I'm afraid it's run dry."

"Absolutely Señor!" She agreed hurriedly, taking the bright cup from his hand. She thanked her ancestors that he hadn't been too put off. She'd had people try to get her fired for less, so keeping him as happy as possible was her number one priority. After all, happy customers tipped _much_ better.

* * *

Sebastian craned his head to watch her hurry across the white sand towards the hotel's bar a half mile away. He'd definitely need to ask the front desk her name before the evening, but for now he had more important business to attend to. Casually, he reached next to his chair and plucked the golden arrow that had been neatly buried not an inch away from where his foot draped over the chair. Twirling it in lazy circles between his fingers, he lowered his dark glasses to reveal bright blue eyes uncharacteristic for the Latin heritage.

"You're aims getting sloppy, Apollo," He said casually, leaning back in the chair, "The girl's the mortal you know."

From the air itself, Apollo's form shimmered for a second before appearing in full regalia before Sebastian. His bow was drawn again, another arrow resting at the ready in his hands. Nothing about his demeanor suggested civility towards his fellow deity.

"You assume much if you think I was aiming for her, Ares." Apollo scoffed bitterly.

'Sebastian' rolled his eyes, removing the glasses entirely and running a hand through his jet black hair. Almost instantly, it bleached to a golden flax. As he ruffled his hair, a light breeze seemed to blow away the copper tan like dust on his skin to reveal the god's visage.

"And to think I expected to actually enjoy a vacation…." Ares sighed, unconcerned with his fellow god's arrival, "I take it Zeus sent you? He's been after me about Kasnia for months now, but it's been forever since I've stirred up a good war-"

"Do I look like Hermes?" Apollo spat, "I have no intention of playing messenger boy. My business here is my own."

"Then out with it, my brother," Ares turned slightly towards the Sun-God, "You look as if you will explode should you hold back any longer."

"I have come across your vile spawn," Apollo hissed.

"I'm afraid you'll need to be more specific," Ares yawned, bored with the conversation.

"Katarostian."

Ares didn't move from his seat, but his posture suddenly stiffened at the name. A cautious eye swiveled to meet his brother's glare.

"Katar?" Ares asked carefully, as if were a joke, "You lie. He was sealed by Zeus himself and has no more chance of escaping than Typhon."

"Your foul offspring even now dwells within the body of a mortal, Ares! How he came upon such misfortune, I do not know, but it does not bode well for you." Apollo warned him, "Our Father warned you against such a beast, yet you paid him no heed and now it once again threatens the world."

"And what is it you propose I do Apollo?" Ares growled, facing his brother, "Katar obeys the will of no one, god nor mortal. The Athenians learned that the hard way."

"Have you neither salve nor bane against this demon?" Apollo scoffed.

"Aye," Ares nodded ruefully, "Death. To meet an end before Katar brings it upon you is a far kinder fate than what waits in his grasp. Father banished to exist between the planes of life and death. Since death would be folly, it robs those it can capture of life to somehow restore its own."

"Surely you have better prepared than that," Apollo shook his head, "When death inevitably waits those who have been cursed to bear that monster."

"There is one other," Ares persisted, lips drawn in a taught line, "Though death is by far the kinder."

Apollo scowled angrily at the God of War. To be denied his own power by the work of another god was infuriating, to be denied by the _offspring_ of a god was intolerable. But to lash out at Ares now would be folly, after all, there would be nothing gained save for his own satisfaction. Instead, Apollo turned to the sea to take his leave.

"Perhaps you should reconsider your idea of kindness," Apollo spat, sparing one last look at his brother before letting the afternoon sun wipe him from the beach, "Nyx will not be pleased to learn her favored servant was struck by your seed."

Apollo had a moment of contentment before he vanished from sight, as Ares blanched at the mention of Nyx's name. Even the King of the Gods feared her wrath, and the vengeful goddess was not known to be understanding, nor forgiving to human, or god. He was no fool to tell the goddess himself of the events on Earth, though he had no doubt she would find out on her own all too soon.

* * *

Diana couldn't remember how long she'd been sitting next to Bruce's bedside, with only the steady beeping of the machines to keep her company. It was a stark contrast to the flurry of nurses and doctors that had assailed them both in the early hours of their arrival, and had almost angered her that now J'onn had not left someone keep watch over the dozing form in the bed. But then, what could there be done? The machines soulless toning signaled the outside world that the body in the bed was still alive, the constant drip of the IV replaced the fluids Bruce continued to lose at an alarming rate, and it had become evident long ago that replacing the biohazard buckets to retain some semblance of order and sterility had been a lost cause from the start.

Diana sighed heavily, to save Bruce-no, make him comfortable- would put dozens of people at constant risk to develop the disease themselves. In the back of her mind, she knew full well that was the way he'd order J'onn to do it. No one would put their life on the line for the Batman, not while he had any influence in the situation. Then again, he'd also be telling her to be getting her job done, and looking for the culprit rather than wasting her time fretting over a fate she couldn't change-

"_NO!"_ Diana scolded herself, appalled the thought had even entered her mind, "_He isn't gone yet. We still have time to fix this. We still have time to save him."_

Determined to prove it to herself, she picked up a discarded towel and gently dabbed at the vermilion streams running across Bruce's face. It was almost painstakingly difficult to just barely touch him, when she could crush a car just as easily as a tin can. It didn't help though. No matter how thoroughly she wiped away the blood, his skin seemed to be stained red from the endless drip. And it wasn't just pouring from his nose, blood-stained tears crawled down the sides of his face, though his eyes were shut behind quivering eyelids.

_**Ebola attacks the lining of the eyeball. Droplets of blood stand out on the eyelids: you may weep blood. The blood runs from your eyes down your cheeks and refuses to coagulate.**_

Diana was fighting a losing battle even against the steady but relentless crimson tide. She set the towel down and surveyed the damage the virus was wreaking on Bruce's body. The bruising was the first thing that caught her eye; the purple and red blotches were spreading like a fire in a dry field across his body. His hands and feet were cold despite the fever that was raging unchecked, and they were already the ugly shade of greenish purple from his fingers and toes to the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet.

_**Small blood clots begin to appear in the bloodstream, and the blood thickens and slows, and the clots begin to stick to the walls of blood vessels. This is known as pavementing, because the clots fit together in a mosaic. The mosaic thickens and throws more clots, and the clots drift through the bloodstream into the small capillaries, where they get stuck. This shuts off the blood supply to various part of the body.**_

He was getting worse.

She sat back in her seat, running a frustrated hand through her hair. It was all wrong. He wasn't supposed to be like this; the man was too damn stubborn to be this sick. He was just too damn stubborn to be like this….

"Y…ou're not…supposed to be here…." A shaking voice spoke.

A trace of Bruce's blue eyes still looked back at her from behind the veil of blood that had invaded. They were tired and dull, but they were still there.

"Q…quara…ntine…" He wheezed closing his eyes again for a moment.

The smile that spread to her face was involuntary. Leave it to Bruce to be a stickler about the rules, even in his condition. Diana shook her head with a gentle smile and pulled her seat closer to the edge of the bed. She might not be able to touch him, but that didn't mean she still couldn't be close to him.

"I can't get sick," She said, "Remember?"

"Bad time to prove it…." Bruce remarked through a cough.

"Well someone has to make sure you're staying in bed." Diana pointed out, "I promised Alfred."

Bruce rolled his eyes weakly, before letting them drift shut again. They opened again as Diana shifted some of the discarded bins and trash about. They fluttered open at the disturbance and stared at her like a stranger, while his face contorted into a look of confusion at her presence.

"You're not….supposed to be….here." He mumbled.

"Bruce, we've already been over this; I can't get sick."

"No, you're with the others.…There's a…quar…antine…."He insisted, drifting out of consciousness once more.

"Bruce?" Diana called his name, trying to rouse him. This time, he did not wake again, and remained out cold. A frown replaced the comforting smile as the realization of what had just happened began to sink in, despite all the things Diana tried to tell herself it could have been. Apollo was right and the virus was beginning to affect the Dark Knight's greatest asset: his mind.

_**Ebola destroys the brain more thoroughly than does Marburg. The brain becomes clogged with dead blood cells, a condition known as sludging of the brain. The blood clots lodged in his brain are cutting off blood flow. His personality is being wiped away by brain damage.**_

Diana forced herself onto her feet, though her whole body felt like lead. She wasn't doing any good here A pang in her chest nearly made her sit down again as she walked to the secured door, and away from Bruce. Somehow, in the pit of her stomach, she felt like this might just be the last time she would ever get to see him alive. As a reflex, she knelt down to pick up the discarded laptop. She winced as she saw paintings of people clawing at the sky, stricken with ruby eyes and tainted blood. Clark was right, Bruce wanted to know everything, even if it was what still lay in store for him.

An alarm rang as she passed through the door and a shower of corrosive smelling disinfectant that battered her from all sides. She stepped out of the shower and was immediately handed a towel by a familiar face.

"You should have told me you were coming back." J'onn sighed heavily.

"It was a little unexpected," Diana admitted, wringing out her hair, "I went to Delphi to ask Apollo for help."

"I take you were unsuccessful." J'onn observed, glancing at a video feed of the Dark Knight.

"_Apollo_ was." Diana clarified, heading further into the Med Bay, "There was nothing he could do. It's all up to Bruce now."

"Perhaps not." J'onn stopped her, laying a hand on her shoulder, "Maybe Batman has more help than we realize."

"What do you mean?" Diana turned to face him, obviously puzzled.

"I received a communication by an outside frequency a little over an hour and a half ago," J'onn explained carefully, "A request for the Watchtower to teleport someone from the planet's surface."

Diana frowned. There were at least a dozen or more League members on Earth at any given moment, none of them needing any kind of special permission to board the Watchtower. So that left someone outside the League, and there weren't many who would have needed to go through a formal request.

"It's Amanda Waller." J'onn clarified, no doubt following her thought process, "She's currently waiting for us in the Founder's Room."

"J'onn!" Diana gasped, shocked and almost feeling strangely insecure that she was on board the orbiting station, "If Batman would have known about this-"

"Batman is currently in no condition to worry about anything other than himself," J'onn stopped her, "And even that is beginning to take its toll. He gave us instruction to find and stop the culprit, and I am willing to use whatever resource can be made available to us."

J'onn's voice was sharper than Diana had heard it be in a very long time. Rarely did the stoic Martian ever seem to waver from his calm confidence, so the sudden change caught her off guard and it didn't take a mind reader to figure out why. On Earth, the rest of the Founders were working towards an end, through unproductive it may be, it was a goal. J'onn was taking care of Bruce, where the only end was watching the once vibrant hero slowly succumb to the devourer that was destroying his body, and for once, it was a foe he was powerless to stop.

"She was teleported straight to the room," J'onn elaborated, "and has had no contact with any of the League since she arrived. I was on my way to speak with her when you arrived."

"Mind if I come with you?" Diana asked, "I'd like to know myself why she's here."

"I couldn't imagine it any different."

* * *

The trip to the Founder's Meeting Room was a short walk from the Med Bay, but that only seemed to make the tension worse. Diana's recent encounter with the Cadmus Head ran fresh in her mind, though she felt it was a little odd for the woman to want to confront the League about such an infraction on their own territory. J'onn seemed to sense her apprehension, and went in first, shutting the door quickly behind them before the two heroes faced the dark-skinned woman before them.

"Manhunter, Wonder Woman." Amanda addressed each of them with a brief nod of her head.

"Ms. Waller," J'onn took the initative, "You'll pardon my bluntness, but I'm afraid we're rather busy at the moment. Why have you asked to meet with us under such terms?"

"If you're that busy, then drop the pleasantries," Waller said crisply, pulling a metal briefcase onto the table next to her, "We all know you have an incredibly lethal strain of the Ebola virus on board this station and it's Batman that had the unfortunate pleasure of finding it."

Neither hero responded to that, but by the way the air in the room suddenly seemed to become too thick to breathe, she assumed she'd hit the nail right on the head.

"He's not doing well is he?" She asked, her voice genuine.

"The drugs are helping with the nausea and pain for now, but he's developed a nosebleed that we've already had to give him a transfusion of whole blood to replace. Testing's also showing a myriad of problems developing internally as well." J'onn said, abbreviating the growing list of how Batman was dying.

"The virus is starting to mess with his mind as well," Diana added in her recent encounter with the Dark Knight.

Waller sighed, but nodded to herself as she removed a small key from her pocket and unlocked the briefcase on the table. There was a hiss of compressed air that escaped into the room, as she opened the lid to reveal several vials resting in a temporary cold storage next to several thick file folders brimming with torn and earmarked pages.

"Hera," Diana whispered, "What is that?"

"Immune globulin," Waller said, "From survivors of the Ebola Zaire outbreak. So far it's been the most deadly strain, and most likely the closest related to the one you're currently dealing with. USAMRID has been working with it to try and isolate any antibodies in hopes of making a cure. So far, they've been unsuccessful, but I thought that perhaps you might have better luck."

She also removed the various folders and presented them to Diana, opening them to show their contents and indicating to a few of the pages.

"This," She said tapping the manila folders, "Is the entirety of the research that we currently have on the Ebola virus. Dates of outbreaks, casualties, symptoms, and research specific to each discovered strain."

Diana scanned the pages, unable to take in the massive amount of information that she held in her hands. Everything they would ever need to know about what had taken residence in Batman's body rested in her hands. She shook her head, trying to make sense of what had just taken place. Superman had just been to USAMRID hardly a few hours before and had not returned with absolutely nothing.

"Why are you doing this?" J'onn asked, looking away from the suitcase, "CADMUS has made no secret of its disdain for the Justice League in the past."

"You're right," Amanda nodded in agreement, "And after this is all over, I have no doubt that policy will once again be the case. However, this virus has the potential to devastate mankind. As a nameless organization, CADMUS can only do so much, and as much as I hate to admit it, much of the world looks to the Justice League for help and guidance. If the League can't do a thing to stop this now, panic would be widespread across the globe."

"No," Diana shook her head. Waller's words held no deception, that much she could tell, but there was something else hiding behind the business-like façade. "There's more to this. Why not have CADMUS work overtime trying to find a way to stop an outbreak, instead of turning it over to us? This kind of information could be used to create a biological weapon, and you _don't_ trust us."

"But I do trust Batman."

Waller heaved a heavy sigh, mildly irritated with herself that she'd let something like that slip so easily, but now that it was in the open, there was no need to hold it back any longer.

"You're right," Waller said, "I don't trust any of you. But for whatever reason Batman has decided to put his trust in you. That being said, I know that man has a way stored in whatever vault or recess of his mind on how to take down each and every one of you should the situation ever call for it, and you know it. That kind of knowledge helps keep a person honest."

"You think with Batman out of the way, we would have fewer inhibitions and fall prey to the same thinking that led the Justice Lords to their takeover?" J'onn summarized.

"It happened to them." Was her only reply.

"You have some issues with that theory," Diana seethed, furious that what had once appeared to be an extended had to help had once again been nothing more than an agenda, "It was the loss of Flash that set the course for the Justice Lords-"

"It was the loss of a Founding member," Waller stopped her abruptly, "But it was their _Batman_ who did the right thing and fought back. And he did, because he's nothing like the rest of you."

That set Diana's hackles on end, but before she could act on the impulse to put Waller straight through the reinforced hull of the Watchtower, J'onn stepped in, his temper flaring at the insult to their dying friend.

"How dare you.." His voice lowered dangerously to a tone that would have made Bruce proud, "He is every bit the hero any one is in this tower-"

"But he's not," Waller argued back, not even flinching despite being trapped with two very angry metas, "Batman is _not_ a hero like the rest of you, and before you go trying to break me in half, perhaps you should listen."

J'onn nor Diana relaxed their posture, but did take a fraction of a step away from the CADMUS Head, leveling glares at her, daring her to find a decent explanation to give her the right to insult Batman in such a grievous manner.

"You and the rest of your little club up her all claim to be the selfless saviors of Earth, performing your duties in the best interests of the people," She said calmly, "Because of that, you could justify damn near any action as being 'for the good of the people'. It's been done countless times in our own history, hell, the Crusaders killed all in the name of the Lord. But Batman? Batman is a vigilante, a selfish man who risks his life night after night because he couldn't stand to look at himself in the mirror otherwise. He does it, because an 8-year-old boy made a promise on his parents' grave that he would be the last person to ever know what it was like to be alone. Because of that, Batman is nothing like any of you, and that's why the world needs him."

Waller unlatched the cold storage container from the inside of the case and thrust it into J'onn's hands.

"The world needs someone to watch it from the shadows." She said quietly.

The room filled with silence until it felt like it would burst open. Had she not been born an Amazon, Diana would have hung her head in shame. Amanda Waller stood before her, an enemy to both Batman and the League, and yet she was willing to put all her own personal inhibitions to the wind to see that same enemy stand strong once again. Something besides depression stirred in her though. Waller was not ready to see the Dark Knight die, and no matter their differences, that was enough for Diana.

"Thank you," She said at last, breaking the silence.

"You can thank me when you call to tell me he's better." Waller huffed, once again all business, "And you can beam me back to Earth or whatever it's going to take to get me home."

* * *

Gotc: Sorry for the delay there everyone! New semester of school and whatnot, getting used to new professors, homework….blagh….homework. But I felt people out there needed some hope to cling to for poor Bats! Maybe there'll be more in the next chapter! But probably not. Heheheheheh, I really do enjoy being evil more than is healthy.

I'm one review shy of 100 as of now folks, so remember where my favorite link is and let me know what you thought of this! Kudeos for whomever reached 100, and extra cookies and waffles to anyone who gets the reference the gods made in this chapter! If you don't, don't worry about it! This isn't the last time it will come up….

Laters!


	10. Pieces

Gotc: Pleh….. School, work, sleep. Repeat. That pretty much summarizes my reasons for not posting. Believe me, it's been a dull existence. But, here I am, trying to rectify this horrid injustice and get back to doing what I enjoy! Well….kinda. I doubt Bats would really see it that way, but that's not the point now is it? So I think we should start putting some puzzle pieces together this chappie, eh? At least that's the plan, whether that's where the pot goes is another story entirely….So you'll all just have to read to find out!

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.**

**Warnings: Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease.**

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* * *

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_Quarantine_

CHAPTER 9: Pieces

Knowledge is a tricky thing; obtaining it, even more so. To gain knowledge, one must learn from those who already possess what is sought. But if one is ignorant of what is being taught to them, how should they know it is the truth they are being handed?

That was the exact dilemma that faced Diana now, as she and J'onn worked to sift through the relentless amount of information. Waller may have called a truce, but that certainly didn't erase their history. Every fact dredged from the stack of files was checked and rechecked to ensure what they had wasn't simply a pile of lies. At first, Diana had been angry at J'onn's suggestion to authenticate their new wealth of facts and tests. It seemed like a colossal waste of time in her eyes, but as they made their way through the information, it was glaringly obvious that much of what they had been handed was so thoroughly complex, it required more researching to fully comprehend what they actually were reading. Because of that, it was also providing at least a general direction in which to focus their efforts; instead of blindly treating Bruce as his symptoms appeared.

Diana riffled through another of the files, more unpleasant documentation of a human casualty callously detailed in the notes. It almost seemed impossible for another human being to be able to document the suffering of their fellow man in such a cold, scientific way. It seemed disgusting to her that the animal cases were a welcomed break in the recorded outbreaks. Though she hated to admit it, it made it far easier to identify the patterns and subtleties the virus seemed to take. There was one thing that stood out in her mind as she read through the cases of both the survivors and those who the disease consumed: the ones that survived, they never bled.

Diana found herself going in circles through the same data it seemed, trying to find some evidence that proved her otherwise. Before long, she had every survivor file they had available spread out in front of her, each telling the same story over and over. Even Apollo's words echoed cruelly in her mind as if even he were powerless against the red tide that poured relentlessly from Bruce.

Unable to look at the gruesome pictures any longer, she turned her gaze to the monitor that held a steady vigil over Bruce. The live stream that met her there was little better than the pictures in front of her, but at least he was still alive, for now. They had given the survivor's globulin over an hour ago, but were yet to notice any kind of improvement in his condition. If anything, he seemed to be getting worse. The bleeding was picking up in pace, and J'onn had to break in order to place a new transfusion of blood far sooner than they had the first time.

_**Even while the body's internal organs are becoming plugged with coagulated blood, the blood that streams out of the body cannot clot; it resembles whey being squeezed out of curds. The blood has been stripped of its clotting factors. If you put the runny Ebola blood in a test tube and look at it, you see that the blood is destroyed. Its red cells are broken and dead. The blood looks as if it has been buzzed in an electric blender.**_

Keeping pace with his blood loss, and maintaining blood pressure was the only course of action they had. Blood thickeners to stop the external bleeding would only make the clotting within his body worse. Blood thinners to break the forming clots would just make him bleed faster. Yet this doing nothing hardly seemed to be a better choice at all.

"You need a break Diana." J'onn's voice pulled her away from the monitor. His eyes watched her in a stoic, unwavering silence that made her wonder how long he'd been watching her for.

"I'm fine," She said, pulling another file closer toward her, only to have J'onn tug the file back.

"No you aren't." He said, no room for argument in his voice, "You've forgotten our main objective here. Our job is to find the person who did this to keep them from hurting anyone else."

"And let Batman die?" Diana rose to her feet, fury building at her teammate. As an Amazon, it was her duty to look after her comrades. To do anything but was nothing short of blasphemy to everything she believed in-

"You have forgotten the situation we're still in," J'onn interrupted her, her thoughts screaming into his mind though she was silent, "It's our duty to protect the people who cannot protect themselves. Batman knew that when he told us to find his attacker, not for himself, but for them. If we save him at the expense of the lives of everyone else on Earth, we would be shaming everything he is sacrificing for us now."

Diana clenched her fists, though she knew J'onn was right. The life of one man was hardly worth the lives of the entire world, but-

"Get some rest," J'onn sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Even if it's only an hour. I'll be sure to call you if something changes here. A fresh mind can often shed new light on a difficult problem."

Her shoulders slumped under his hand that suddenly felt like it weighed ten times more than it should have. She was merely pacing under the guise of research and doing no real good burring herself under facts and case numbers. Reluctantly, she nodded and consented to at least getting out and stretching her legs. She couldn't bring herself to go to her quarters and do nothing while Bruce suffered, but the odd hours would at least give her some privacy as she headed to the gym.

* * *

Another drone fell in a heap at her feet as the simulation came to an end. She had to be missing something. There had to be another angle they hadn't explored. Diana had no doubts in her mind that J'onn was more than capable handling the medical aspect, and sifting through the masses of new information they had. The other's on the ground had combed through their potential suspects, and there was no way that if something had been amiss that they would have just let it slide. The Gods couldn't help, at least as far as Bruce was concerned, so what did that leave them? The assassin had to come from somewhere and she certainly couldn't have disappeared into thin air, so surely there had to be a way to track her down. Batman always seemed to be able to, so how did he find someone?

A good workout had always been something of a panacea on Themascyra whenever she ran up against a particularly difficult problem, but as she went through her third cycle of drones, it became obvious that the added aggression was only making her feel worse. And every moment that passed her by, she couldn't help but feel that it was one more moment Batman would have been closer to an answer if their roles had been reversed. But that was who Batman was; he would exhaust every possibility when it came to the well-being of his comrades. Hera, the man absolutely despised magic of any kind, and yet here Zatanna had told her that he had even been willing to-

Wait. Diana froze as she began to start another simulation. That business with Circe…. Zatanna told her about how he'd been trying to find the goddess to save her…. Her hand flew to her communicator, and waited impatiently for a response from the other end.

"Di…ana?" A groggy Zatanna mumbled on the other end of the line, "What's wrong?"

"Zee, how did you and Bruce find Circe?" Diana asked, though perhaps a bit too hurried.

"What do you mean?"

"When she turned me into a pig, do you remember how you found her?" She tried to slow down.

"Ummm….Medusa," Zatanna said, a bit more coherently, "We had to go to Tarturus-"

"No, before that!" Diana interrupted, frustrated more at herself for not being able to remember the ordeal clearly, "There was something else, I remember a flash of light…"

"You mean the locator spell? That didn't work, Di."

"You were looking for a goddess," Diana reasoned, "What if they were just human?"

There was the sound of a shifting mattress and the soft flutter of cloth through the earpiece before Zatanna spoke again.

"That's the idea behind a locator spell, Di." Zatanna said, the sleep gone from her voice, "Do you mind telling me what's going on that you're waking me up at 2:30 in the morning? Half the Watchtower's under lockdown, and now you're trying to pry a particularly specific spell out of me? I expect the cryptic thing from Batman, but it's certainly new coming from you. What's going on? And I should warn you that I don't care how much you've picked up from that man, you pull the silent treatment on me and I'll come find you right now and turn that lasso of yours on you."

Diana paused for only a second, considering just how much she should say at once, but found the entire story spilling out along with the tears she'd been holding at bay for far too long. Zatanna listened in utter shock as the tale unfolded with all the terror of a nightmare and none of the reassurance it would be gone with the rising sun.

"The locator might just work, but I'm not going to lie to you Diana," Zatana said slowly, still trying to make sense of the situation, "Circe might have been powerful, but at least she gave me something to focus on. If this would even have the remotest shot of working, I'd need something of hers to direct the spell."

"The only thing we have is the knife she used to…" Diana started to say and found the words caught painfully in her throat.

"That'll work I think," Zatanna said, catching the distress in Diana's voice, "But it's going to take some time to gather the ingredients together."

"I understand," Diana said, gathering herself, "I think the knife's in the medical wing now, J'onn had been running some tests on it earlier. You'll let me know when you have something?"

"Not a second later," Zatanna promised, "and, Di. He'll pull through this. He's the Batman, for god's sake."

"I know," Diana said quietly to no one as the magician signed out, "It just gets harder to say."

She tried to go back to her workout, but found it impossible to find her focus once again. Everyone else was working, and she was taking a break. She couldn't go back to the Founder's room just yet, so instead Diana let her mind drift back over the charts she left behind. She forced herself to focus on the details, mentally scanning for something she might have missed.

"_Filoviruses, Marburg being the only other disease in the family. Infections start two days to two weeks of exposure…." _She turned the key phrases she'd read over in her mind_. _Not that it was helping. An infuriating itch had developed at the base of her skull, and spread throughout the rest of her brain the more she tried to think.

Her heart began to race, though she didn't know quite why. No, she did. This was the same feeling she had when sparring with Bruce, that instant before his attack would launch from her blind spot. He was the only man on Earth who could hide his presence so flawlessly, and yet the more time she spent training with him, the more she could almost _feel_ the imperceptible twitch of movement before his next strike. It was the same feeling that when her senses told her she was alone, another part screamed at her that something was still there.

" _Ebola Sudan had around a 50% mortality rate," _she pressed on, though the feeling got stronger, almost to the point where it was painful,_ "Zaire was closer to 90, while several strains were lethal only to monkeys….._

Diana stopped as Earth as spun below her. Out the thick, airtight window, she could clearly see the masses of land that made up the continents on its surface, and the clear blue waters that sparkled even from her vantage point. The answers were down there somewhere, staring her in the face, hiding in plain sight…..

Diana gasped in shock as a missing piece finally found its way into the unfolding puzzle.

"J'onn!" Diana all but shouted into her communicator, "We missed one!"

"Diana, you're supposed to be resting-" A disapproving voice came back at her, but was cut off before J'onn could finish scolding her.

"No, listen to me! Batman had us only looking in _human _reservoirs!" Diana all but screamed back at him, "But Ebola doesn't just affect humans, it kills monkeys too!"

_**The strain was a sophisticated organism that knew what it wanted. It could multiply in many different kinds of meat. It was an invasive life form, devastating and promiscuous. It showed a kind of obscenity you see only in nature, an obscenity so extreme that it dissolves imperceptibly into beauty….**_

…_**.and It made a living somewhere in Africa. **_

"Gorilla City," J'onn quickly followed her thoughts, "Ebola is native to Africa, and they certainly have the technology to preserve a sample of the virus."

"I'm heading to the transporters now," Diana said, not waiting for his approval, "Contact the others and have them meet me outside of the City"

"I'll let Solovar know to expect you."

Diana shot through the halls, ignoring the indignant looks she got form the heroes who had to leap out of her way as she shot past them to the teleporters. Her heart was back in her throat again, though a part of her warned against it. But she couldn't help but feel that Bruce had a chance again, not simply a long shot of faith and untested science. The gorillas were an advanced race, and they shared a common enemy. It was a dangerous hope, that perhaps somewhere in the barren desert would lie a miracle, but for the moment, that hope was all she had.

* * *

The arid heat usually came almost as a shock after the carefully controlled environment of the Watchtower, but it made little impact on Diana as the endless sea of desolate sand and sun rushed beneath her. The landscape all appeared to be the exact same, with little more than a sparse tree or scrub brush to break up the expanse. A stream of coordinates guided her to her location, since the ape's technology prevented a safe teleport within 100 miles of the city. A familiar dot on the horizon caught her attention, as she zeroed in and touched down on semi-rocky ground. Superman lighted next to her, looking just as tired as she felt and nearly stumbling on the uneven ground.

"Where are the others?" Diana asked, noting her companion was obviously alone.

"Following a lead," Superman said, "It wasn't much, but we found several genetic scientists who had worked with viral DNA. We split up to talk to them and maybe find out if any of them knew someone that would hold a grudge against the League."

"I take it you haven't found anything," Diana sighed, seeing the disparaging look on her friend's face.

"Not a thing." Superman shook his head sadly, as a faint shimmer disrupted the otherwise unchanging landscape.

Like a portal to another realm, a small doorway opened up, revealing a miniscule portion of the vast city hidden behind the intricate veil few knew existed. As they stepped though it and into the domain of the apes, Superman and Wonder Woman were both greeted at the threshold by Solovar's familiar outline amongst the contingent of soldiers at his back.

"Superman! Wonder Woman!" The silver-haired ape greeted them warmly, "You're Martian friend told me you were coming, but was rather mute on the occasion. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

"We need to know everything you do about the Ebola virus." Wonder Woman said bluntly, ever aware of the diminishing time they had.

The reaction was sudden and immediate amongst the gathered apes. Some reeled away from the Leaguers as if they carried the virus itself, while others brandished teeth and weapons alike to drive them from the city's borders. A bellowing roar from Solovar quieted the gathered to an uneasy murmur amongst themselves, but his even he seemed shaken by the mention of the virus.

"I wish we were here on better business," Superman said, the fatigue even showing in his voice.

"Aye," Solovar agreed, "So do I. Come on, you'll need to follow me so we can talk in private."

Diana would have thought her voice must have carried throughout the entire city, if judging by the fearful stares they received from nearly every inhabitant was any indicator. She was almost glad when the heavy doors of Solovar's office closed tightly behind them.

"You'll forgive them for their reactions?" Solovar sighed, "It's been a long while since that menace's name had been heard inside the city."

"So you do know of it then?" Superman said, his voice perking up ever so slightly.

"Hn. All too well. That disease is a bane both to your species and ours. We remember too clearly a time when it burned through our streets and washed them red with blood," The ape shuddered a bit at the memory, "There is little we apes fear, but that demon is one we do. Which begs the question, what is it that brings this horrible topic with you?"

"An assassin is loose in the outside world," Wonder Woman said, making no attempt to hid the malice in her voice, "And she uses the virus as her weapon. She's already struck down one of our own, and now we fear she will go after others. We came to you hoping Gorilla City had found a cure we could use to stop her, or perhaps provide some insight as to how she came by the virus in the first place."

Solovar laughed, though the sound was utterly humorless.

"A cure for Ebola?" He scoffed, "Are you mad? The only ones in the city fool enough to come within a hundred yards of the stuff are already crazy or out of their minds! No, there is no cure for something that was never truly alive to start with…"

_**It is a perfect parasite because it transforms virtually every part of the body into a digested slime of virus particles. The seven mysterious proteins that, assembled together, make up the Ebola-virus particle, work as a relentless machine, a molecular shark, and they consume the body as the virus makes copies of itself.**_

"Solovar," Superman shook his head, helplessly, "We've searched every possible link on our end of the world and came up empty. If there's anything at all you can tell us…"

The ape folded his hands behind his back, running one through his iron colored fur before he placed it on a touch pad on the wall. A beep sounded quietly in the room, before a small square door popped open out of the seamless wall. Solovar quickly pried it open to reveal the innards of a safe that was empty save for a single disk resting on the bottom.

"This," He said, pulling the disk out and holding it between his fingers before sliding it into a slot on his desk, "Is footage we pulled from a surveillance camera two weeks ago along the city's perimeter."

An image flashed on the opposing wall of dark buildings in the African twilight, with no sound nor movement to disturb the scene, until a shadow rushed through the frame so quickly, it was hard to be sure it had even been there in the first place.

"An intruder somehow managed to get past the City's barrier and into the interior nearly undetected," He said, rewinding the clip and freezing it at the moment the shadow came into view, "Nothing had been taken, no files copied, no one dead or injured. We swept all possible targets for any kind of bomb or planted device and turned up empty. Several officials decided it was a prank by one of the youngsters, and voted to not show this to the public and worry them unnecessarily."

"Can you enhance the image and get a better look at who the intruder was?" Superman asked, standing up to get a closer look at the picture.

A moment later, the frame zoomed in closer and readjusted for the lack of light. The resulting image was still poor, yet revealed an all too familiar black clad female, vaulting through the camera's line of sight.

"It's her!" Diana said angrily, rising to her feet as well, "That's the same woman who attacked Batman at Lex Corp!"

"Solovar," Superman said, wearing a look that would have made the Dark Knight proud, "Are you absolutely sure nothing was taken?"

"You think she would have taken an Ebola sample from us?" Solovar balked.

"How many guards do you have watching the samples?"

Solovar fell silent and made Diana lose what patience she still had left. Before Superman could reach out and stop her, Wonder Woman had Solovar by the throat and two feet off the ground, ready to let him fall to the ground three stories below. She had been hoping for a miracle, only to once again just watch any glimmer be torn away yet again.

"Batman is _dying_, and you're going to tell me that it's because no one was around to stop her?" She roared furiously, "This all could have been stopped if someone had just-"

"Things don't work the same way here that they do in your world," The ape choked out, "No one messes with that thing unless they have a death wish…."

"Diana!" Clark pulled her away from him, planting himself between the two, "This isn't going to make things better for anyone. All we know is that she was here, we don't know if she did get the sample here only that she managed to make it this far."

He turned to Solovar who had slumped to the floor trying to catch his breath. The ape looked up apologetically at the two heroes and managed to get back on his feet with an impressive amount of wheezing.

"I'll get a forensics team to the deep storage immediately," He said coughing, and heading out of the office, "We'll know for sure soon."

"Not soon enough," Diana said, making sure he had heard as they followed him out.

A tone in her ear might have been the only thing between Solovar and another attack from the still molten anger of the Amazon Princess.

"This isn't a good time," Diana barked into her communicator, not bothering to hear the voice on the other side.

"Diana! It's Zatanna! Listen. J'onn told me you're busy, but I found something you need to see!"

Diana's anger suddenly vaporized into oblivion, as the Clark and Solovar continued on without her, unaware she had come to a complete halt.

"What is it? Did you find out where she is?"

"Not quite," Zatanna said, an uneasy tone in her voice, "I'm not exactly sure what to make of this, and I think you should see it for yourself."

"Alright, let me tell Superman and I'll be on my way."

"Ok, I borrowed Batman's computer in the Cave, so meet me here, but I gotta tell ya, Di….." Zatanna said, pausing to an uncomfortable silence that seemed to stretch on for hours.

"…I don't think you're going to like this."

* * *

Gotc: Yawn. Sleepy. Late. Class in Morning. Review. Please and thank you. Zzzzzzzzzzz….


	11. Fact

Gotc: Wow….two years huh? Shame on me for making you all wait this long. Still, take heart. I do plan on finishing this story. Hopefully soon…..ish? I at least plan on making some of you out there cry/sob/lament/insert appropriate synonym here. But enough of this. I have made you wait long enough!

**Disclaimer: Gotc does not own JL or "The Hot Zone". All quotes from the aforementioned book do not belong to me and will be in bold italicized font.**

**Warnings: Ebola is a disease not for the faint of heart. Out of respect for Richard Preston's work, and of the nature of the virus itself, I will be describing its effects, both in my own words and Mr. Preston's. While I will attempt to keep this tasteful, I have no intention of downplaying the effects of this disease.**

* * *

Quarantine

CHAPTER 10: Fact

They'd gone through 4 bags of blood before J'onn was forced to start a mix of synthetic hemoglobin dripping into Batman's system. Blood ran down his arm and dripped over his fingers from a failed attempt at placing a new IV catheter.

_**At every place in the patient's arm where he stuck the needle, the vein broke apart like cooked macaroni and spilled blood, and the blood ran from the punctures down the patient's arm and wouldn't coagulate.**_

J'onn gave up after that, opting to switch out the lines instead. It was far from ideal, but a far cry better than having Batman bleed out from a tiny hole in his arm.

He absentmindedly reached out to fiddle with one of the drip sets, convinced it was not flowing properly. He pressed a number of buttons on the attached pump, before he entered the settings back the exact same way again. He turned and reached for a syringe to flush the line, thinking that perhaps the line itself had become plugged, when he finally looked at Batman.

No. Not Batman. The Batman he knew possessed the kind of spirit his people would have called, _Aeri'sthi. _Unbreakable. He was the kind of man that the will of the universe itself could not possibly deter him from his task.

He wasn't looking at Batman. Not even at Bruce Wayne. The arrogant persona of his, however necessarily distasteful he might have been, was still a man that radiated life.

The man on the bed before him was little more than a shell.

Behind a cowl, Batman's face had always been hard to read, if not downright impossible. Even without a mask, emotions were always something the Dark Knight kept closely guarded. The sunken face of this man had nothing to hide. Dull red eyes gazed at the ceiling above. They no longer acknowledged J'onn's presence with a familiar, fleeting glance. They simply stared.

_**They showed no facial expression, not even pain or agony. The connective tissue under the skin had been destroyed by the virus, causing a subtle distortion of the face. The masklike face, the red eyes, and the bloody nose were classic signs of Ebola that appear in all primates infected with the virus, both monkeys and humans. It hinted at a vicious combination of brain damage and soft-tissue destruction under the skin. The classic Ebola face makes them look as if they have seen something beyond comprehension. It is not a vision of heaven.**_

J'onn had to force himself to step away, to realize that there was nothing wrong with the lines or the equipment. He had to make himself take a step back and look at all the wires and machines connected to the man there on the bed. He had to scan the makeshift staging area and lay eyes on the half dozen bottles of clearly labeled medications and biohazard boxes threatening to overflow with spent syringes and disposable gowns.

He had to reach out, despite every threat and warning, to brush against the mind of this man. To see for himself the once impenetrable wall that had crumbled to dust, and the always churning thoughts behind it all laying dead and silent.

J'onn sank into a chair next to the bed, the strength in his legs no longer enough to keep him upright under the weight of the truth he saw in those empty eyes. A truth he simply could not bear to share. Perhaps they all knew it at some level already.

"_No." Batman's firm voice echoed in J'onn's own mind_ _as his last coherent conversation with the Dark Knight repeated itself._

"_They should know."_

"_If they're doing their jobs right, they'll figure it out for themselves eventually."_

"_Is that how you want them to find out? Is that how you want Diana to-"_

"_What I want, is for them to do the job I can't!" His voice was firm, even through the fatigue, "If I have to be the poster child that motivates them to save the rest of the world from this then so be it!"_

Batman already knew. He'd known the instant the tests had come back positive for Ebola. The expressionless face and blank eyes that stared up at the ceiling now had one simple fact written all over them.

Preventing the virus would be the easy part. Getting rid of it, nearly impossible and even if some miracle happened and they could cure Batman…

_**His personality is being wiped away by brain damage. This is called depersonalization, in which the liveliness and details of character seem to vanish. He is becoming an automaton. **_

There might not be anything left of him to save.

* * *

Gotc: I'm evil. Straight up. Not a full chapter, but just enough to whet your appetite for more I hope! Besides, I hadn't done much from J'onn's point of view yet. Anyway, I felt this needed to be on its own rather than tagging along on another chapter. So sorry it's short, but hopefully some of you will still think it merits a review? Yes? Please? They make me happy, you know! I'll shut up now, but be looking for a full chapter here within the next few days! See ya then!


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